Salesforce vs HubSpot (Find Your Ultimate Winner in 2023)

Why Choosing the Right CRM Matters

The right CRM solution can make a big difference for your business. A good CRM can help you manage your sales process, keep track of customer interactions, and automate tasks to help you save time and be more productive. Choosing the right CRM can help you improve your business processes and grow your business.

There is no “one-size fits all” approach to CRM. However, there are a couple of decision drivers you should consider when choosing the CRM solution:

1. What problem are you solving? If you are a small business, a CRM can help you manage your sales process and keep track of customer interactions. A CRM can help you automate tasks and improve your business processes if you are a larger business.
2. What is your growth path? If you are pretty sure of your business outlook and you will be able to generate a solid revenue stream when adopting expensive solutions you can choose higher price tags.

According to SKUID statistics and research, anywhere from 20-70% of CRM projects fail.

Sales leads often express doubt in a CRM’s ability to help them, claimed that their company needs more apps, and overall feel dissatisfied with how unhelpful they think a CRM is supposed to be.

The correct CRM will streamline your (work) life.

The ideal tool will perfectly fit into your team’s processes as an extension of them. You should be able to centralize your information and manage customer service, sales, and outbound outreach as easily as you run inbound communication.

If you’re looking to scale your business, a good CRM is essential. It will help you maintain the same level of customer satisfaction as you grow, without any growing pains.

CRM Leaders: Who Are They?

Although there are tens of CRM solutions available on the market. I will focus in this article on two market giants: HubSpot and Salesforce. I will also be more focused on my audience (individuals, start-ups, and small and medium companies) when comparing these two solutions. Enterprise-level companies are a separate story.

Let’s see what each offers:

Everything You Need to Know about HubSpot

HubSpot was founded in 2006 by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah to help businesses grow faster. The company’s mission is to “help businesses grow in a more human way.”

HubSpot Sales CRM is a cloud-based solution that helps businesses manage their sales process and customer interactions. It offers a wide range of features, including lead management, contact management, task automation, and reporting.

HubSpot was built on one unified codebase, which offers you and your team a cohesive experience that’s simpler to learn and use.

HubSpot also offers a free version that allows businesses to get started with a limited number of features.

HubSpot Sales CRM is a popular choice for businesses of all sizes. It has been ranked as the #1 CRM software in the world by G2 Crowd and is widely used by small businesses and large enterprises alike.

HubSpot Sales CRM is also a popular choice for startups, as it offers a free version that allows businesses to get started with a limited number of features.

Everything You Need to Know about Salesforce

Salesforce was founded in 1999 by Marc Benioff and Parker Harris. The company’s mission is to “build bridges between companies and customers.” The mission puts a huge effort into building businesses on relationships. It might explain why it grows so quickly despite the high-end pricing.

Salesforce is a software as a service (SaaS) platform that offers a suite of tools for businesses of all sizes. 

Salesforce Sales Cloud is the company’s flagship product and helps businesses manage customer data, sales opportunities, and pipeline progress. 

Salesforce also offers a number of other products, including Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

In addition to its core product offerings, Salesforce also provides a number of value-added services, such as Salesforce Consulting and Salesforce AppExchange, plus a team of experienced sales professionals who can help you get the most out of your Salesforce investment.

The Choosing Criteria: Salesforce vs HubSpot – Which One Is Right for My Business?

While every business has unique needs, there are general criteria you can use to decide whether HubSpot or Salesforce is right for you:

The criteria I am using include:

• The total cost of ownership
• Features
• Ease of use
• Ease of admin
• Integration
• Scalability
• Customization
• Support and service
• User Feedback
• Let’s see how both tools present their powers!

Sales Software Costs for a Team of 50

One of the most important factors is the so-called Total Cost of Ownership. It shows the total cost of all the expenditures associated with the solution:

• cost of infrastructure
• licenses
• support
• enhancements
• bug fixing
• deployment and integration

I have been using this measure for years when performing assessments for my corporate clients.

Usually, there is a minimum needed configuration that can be treated as a benchmark when comparing the tools. There are also nuances, but all in all, TCO can give you a flavor of what’s ahead of you.

For the purpose of our exercise, I’m assuming the following:

• The Team that will be using (need access to) the tool consists of 50 persons
• Due to the size of my team, I am choosing an onboarding service
• I am interested also in regular maintenance related to new integrations or small enhancements
• I need an outbound calling software as well to follow up on the leads and warm them up
• My team needs access to a kind of Knowledge Exchange platform, so they can self-learn and collaborate to increase efficiency
• Because I am running a serious business I expect support or service available to me 24/7
• Last but not least, I would like to integrate my website with a virtual chatbot, so I can assist my clients right on the spot

Let’s see how all of the above reflects in the price.

Salesforce vs HubSpot: Total Cost of Ownership

Before we start, I need to bring up one remark here. Why can’t you guys from Salesforce be more transparent with your pricing?

To understand the Salesforce pricing you need to make a deep dive. Because you cannot easily extract needed information from their website (try it! 😉 ), they have created a so-called customer-success-pricing-packaging-guide, which does not bring you closer to the topic.

I tried to even contact them using their chatbot but it works exactly how I thought – it invites you to a warm chat just to collect your contact details and to tell you:

Exerpt from the Salesforce Support Chatbot

Unfortunately, there are currently no sales experts available to chat at this time. We have saved your contact information, and one of our helpful experts will be in touch as soon as possible. Is there anything else I can help you with today?

Just to give a hint. Let’s assume that you are looking for a CRM for a Small Business. You will quickly realize that you need at least 4 modules with different pricing tiers:

• Entry license: Essentials, Professional, Service Professional
• Sales: Essentials, Professional, Enterprise
• Service (aka Service Cloud): Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited
• Marketing: Growth, Plus

All in all, to get the final price you need to either contact a sales rep or add up different plans for the modules and add-ons of your choice.

More or less, I have performed calculations of TCO above, so use it as a starting point.

On the contrary, HubSpot is totally customer-friendly when it comes to pricing, so the exercise was much easier on their side. Big congratulations to HubSpot! 🙂

Anyway, I made it finally, and below you can find the summary.

Salesforce Sales Software Costs for a Team of 50

Salesforce total cost of ownership for Sales Cloud Enterprise:

• Enterprise plan pricing for 50 users: $7,500 /a month
• Set-up fees: $5,000 
• Outbound calling feature add-on ($45/user/month): $27,000 (assuming 50 users)
• Pardot marketing automation ($1,250/month for up to 10,000 contacts): $15,000 and Pardot licensing for your team with Salesforce Engage ($50/user/month): $30,000 (assuming 50 users)
• Einstein AI sales automation ($50/user/month): $30,000 (assuming 50 users)
• Proposals and quotes add-on ($75/user/month): $45,000 (assuming 50 users)
• Support costs (20% of net cost for 24/7 phone support + 5% for U.S.-based support): $375
• Trailhead education ($25/user/month): $15,000

This is only the beginning of what Salesforce add-ons can do for you. For the listed price, you’ll get basic CRM features. However, if you want to automate, streamline, and scale your CRM operations, you’ll need to pay almost $175.000 a year!

A price tag that might be a killer for an average Small and Medium Business

I don’t enjoy having to pay for so many add-ons, especially when most of them should already be included in the main price. Is it too much to ask for sales automation and a shared inbox?

The process feels needlessly complicated just to get started. Onboarding users and figuring out who gets access to which feature is costly and time-consuming, especially when you’re paying almost $180,000 per month for your CRM system. 

This leads to a cutting-the-corners approach in the organization, which is never any good news in the long run.

HubSpot Sales Software Costs for a Team of 50

On the contrary, I found HubSpot pricing clear and transparent. Here’s the drill-down of the pricing factors:

• Enterprise plan pricing for 50 users: $6000 /a month
• Set-up fees: $3,000
• Outbound calling feature add-on: Included in the plan
• Marketing automation: Included in the plan
• Proposals and quotes: Included in the plan
• Support costs: Included in the plan
• Education: A lot of free resources

There you go! You can own HubSpot CRM for a price that won’t exceed $75,000 annually, and that’s with plenty of add-ons.

What I like most is that your plan comes complete with all the essential CRM and sales features. If you’re looking to get more out of the system, you can upgrade for a fair price.

I am far from being biased, but I am choosing HubSpot in this category. I am using it also to run my business, BUT I have performed the due diligence also for my purpose and HubSpot stole my heart! I am sorry Salesforce! 😉

Salesforce vs HubSpot: CRM Features

Comparing both tools is a little bit of an art. They are naming the same features differently and what is more, they are bundled differently.

To compare apples to apples, first I will present the things as they are providing a little bit of an explanation where needed.

Salesforce Features

There are two dimensions when it comes to Salesforce features.

First, Salesforce bundles its features depending on the business needs.

A second dimension is single features and add-ons that you can bring in if needed.

Business needs

Let’s focus on Business needs and related features. I am writing more about add-ons later in this article.

1. Small Business represents a package to help small businesses sell in a more intelligent way and support faster in a single app. This package represents bundled modules Sales, Service, and Marketing. A minimum valuable product to begin with.
2. Salesforce Sales Module helps to connect teams, close more deals, and streamline your entire sales process. It has features like:
   • Account and contact management
   • Opportunity tracking
   • Lead management
   • Task and event tracking
   • Case management
   • Customizable reports and dashboards
   • Mobile access and administration
   • Native sales collaboration
   • Email integration
   • Single Sales Console app
   • Number of processes, record types, profiles, and role permission sets
   • Apps and tabs
   • Campaigns
   • Quotes and orders
   • Collaborative forecasts
   • Mass email
   • Salesforce Inbox
   • Salesforce Engage
   • Salesforce CPQ
   • Enterprise territory management
   • Advanced forecasting
   • Team selling
   • Workflow automation
   • Full profiles and page layouts
   • Salesforce Identity
   • Salesforce Private AppExchange
   • Custom app development
   • Integration via web service API
   • Multiple sandboxes
   • Report history tracking
   • Approval automation

You will find more under Sales pricing and editions

3. Salesforce Service Cloud helps to manage customer support cases faster across every channel. Some features it represents are:
   • Case Management
   • Service Console App(s) 
   • Knowledge 
   • Service Contracts and Entitlements 
   • Telephony Integration (CTI) 
   • Web Services API 
   • 24/7 Support and Configuration Services
   • Additionally, the module has functionalities that:
     • Empower Customers with Self-service Communities
     • Transform Field Service Operations
     • Get Real-time Business Insights
     • helps to cross-sell and upsell more easily
     • enables you to connect Service Info to any App
     • support customization and automating processes.

For more information please follow the official Salesforce site.

4. Sales and Service: a combination of sales and service cloud module
5. The Marketing Cloud module helps to build, optimize, and personalize campaigns and journeys. It brings such features as:
   • In-depth prospect tracking
   • Lead nurturing and email marketing
   • Lead scoring and grading
   • ROI reporting
   • Real-time alerts
   • Forms and landing pages
   • Standard CRM integration
   • Advanced email analytic
   • Email rendering preview and spam analysis
   • Email and landing page A/B testing
   • Advanced dynamic content
   • Google AdWords integration
   • API access – up to 25K calls/day
   • Integrated marketing calendar
   • Social profiles
   • Chat support

6. The Salesforce B2C Commerce module enables you to engage buyers online and in-store and supports the conversion of more shoppers with AI-powered digital experiences for mobile, social, web, and store.
7. The Analytics module uses Tableau technology to deliver powerful insights from any data, anytime, anywhere.
8. The Platform helps to build custom low-coded/no-code apps and connect your teams and data with apps built-in clicks
9. Engagement: Under this term, Salesforce means leveraging a resource-based platform as a service called Heroku that helps to create beautiful, branded customer experiences with custom-built apps. It is compliant with PCI and HIPAA so important for businesses operating in the health industry
10. Sustainability: A Salesforce consulting program that helps to achieve carbon neutrality with trusted insights into critical data.
11. Success means nothing else but the right level of support to help you achieve your business goals from self-guided resources to individual coaching and support. It depends on the pricing tier.
12. Work.com is a complete employee-centric solution to keep employees engaged and productive from anywhere. You can manually trace employee health relationships safely and securely.
13. Advisory Services is technical support from Salesforce architects, designers, and developers

HubSpot Features

What I like about HubSpot pricing is its transparency and a “forever free CRM” option that is a perfect fit for someone who just starts a business. This way, HubSpot builds a loyal customer base that might convert into paying customers in the near future.

You can purchase the solution in two ways. Either you go “by-product” or “by bundle”. You will find the navigation super easy on their page starting page. What is more, there is an intuitive calculator available, so you can configure all the things and get a price right off the bat.

When considering HubSpot features they are grouped into 5 products:

• HubSpot Marketing Hub
• HubSpot Sales Hub
• HubSpot Customer Service Hub
• HubSpot CMS
• HubSpot Operations

I will describe briefly each of the products. You can check the full official HubSpot product catalog.

HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot Marketing is a marketing software that helps you to attract more visitors, convert more leads, and close more customers. It includes features such as a website builder, blog, and social media.

Marketing Hub’s main features are:

• premium versions of all free tools
• Marketing automation
• SEO Tools
• Video hosting and management
• Social media tools
• Blog ad content creation tools
• Analytics dashboards
• Additional 60 more features

HubSpot Sales Hub

HubSpot Sales is a sales software that helps you to close more deals in less time. It includes features such as contact management, email tracking, and deal tracking.

The module brings:

• Premium versions of all free tools
• Advanced CRM
• Sales automation
• eSignatures
• Predictive lead scoring
• Email sequences
• Smart send times
• Multiple deal pipelines
• Customizable reports

HubSpot Service Hub

HubSpot Service is a customer service software that helps you to provide excellent customer service. It includes features such as ticketing, live chat, and a knowledge base.

Service Hub delivers to you:

• All free tools in an upgraded version
• Customer service automation
• Knowledge base
• Customer feedback
• Multiple ticket pipelines
• Video creation
• Customer support form fields
• Goals

HubSpot CMS Hub

HubSpot CMS is a content management system that helps you easily create and manage your website content. It includes features such as templates, a drag-and-drop editor, and SEO tools.

You will find CMS Hub useful due to features like:

• Blog and content creation tools
• Dynamic content
• SEO & content strategy
• Lead generation tools
• Live Chat
• Security monitoring & threat detection

HubSpot Operations Hub

HubSpot’s Operations Hub is a comprehensive solution that helps businesses manage their day-to-day operations. It includes features such as task management, project management, and employee scheduling.

HubSpot Operations Hub brings

• Premium versions of all free tools
• Programmable automation
• Snowflake data share
• Workflow extensions
• Team management and permissions
• Data quality automation
• Data sets

HubSpot Free CRM

HubSpot Free CRM is a free version of their Sales CRM software. It includes features such as contact management, email tracking, and deal tracking. The free plan is limited to 1 user.

HubSpot Free CRM is the best example that you can deliver tons of value despite the free tier. This is NOT a free TRIAL, this is a REAL FREE CRM.

Let’s take a look at the features you get – some are limited in volumes or branding but they are available to some extent.

Salesforce vs HubSpot: Ease of Use

From my experience, one of the key success factors when implementing CRM solutions is Change Management. There are a lot of peculiarities around it, but the ease of use and adoption by sales reps play a significant role in the overall success.

It should be obvious that if your team still finds Excel to be more convenient than the newly implemented CRM, then we have a problem.

So, how do our two CRM giants cope with this?

Salesforce and HubSpot are two of the most popular CRM (customer relationship management) software options on the market. They both offer a wide range of features, but which one is the easiest to use?

Speaking shortly.

Salesforce is known for its complex user interface and steep learning curve. It can take some time to get used to all the features and functions, and even longer be able to use them effectively. However, once you’re up to speed, Salesforce can be extremely powerful.

HubSpot, on the other hand, is known for its ease of use. The user interface is simple and intuitive, making it easy for anyone to start using it right away. And with HubSpot’s wealth of features, you still get all the power you need without having to learn a complicated system.

Is Salesforce easy to use

Let’s be honest and let’s use an objective survey conveyed by G2. According to them, Salesforce gets 7.9 out of 10 points. This is significantly less than HubSpot which gets 8.7 points. When we consider ease of setup then Salesforce does even worse 7.2 points vs 8.4 points (HubSpot).

Salesforce can be customized to meet the final user requirements, but it comes with costs. You need to involve Salesforce consultants, pay for the support, and finally train your team.

I have to admit that Salesforce might seems complex. While Salesforce may be great for engineers, the average rep using the CRM on a daily basis finds it difficult to use.

Unless you are a huge enterprise that is ready to pay for customized workflows, fields, and forms adjusted to its needs, I would think twice before purchasing it.

Is HubSpot easier to use than Salesforce?

According to the same G2 survey, it seems that users find HubSpot easier to use. HubSpot gets 8.7 points for ease of use.

I agree. HubSpot is way easier to navigate, use and explain. I am using HubSpot and from day one it took only a few hours to get around the solution. I was able to configure chatbots, emails, calendars, and more from 3rd parties within a few hours and was ready to go.

Of course, there are certain drawbacks, but I cannot complain. Firstly, it’s a huge power machine.

Secondly, it’s free 🙂

It doesn’t take too many clicks to perform target actions. Reps can easily input data, and keep working. HubSpot’s productivity and workflow management tools include:

• Meetings
• Sequences
• Calling
• Snippets

The CRM software includes all of these things, so you don’t have to waste money on extra features just to make the original software easier for your employees.

HubSpot is known for its user-friendly interface. Their processes and flows are designed to achieve goals with as few clicks as possible. 

Not only are HubSpot’s features easy to use, but they’re also easily integrated into your daily workflows.

The ultimate goal of a CRM tool is to stop your representatives from keeping notes and actions outside of your tool. As a business owner, you want to build a data-driven organization with centralized information, so you can increase the performance of your organization by executing actions based on data stored within the system.

Salesforce vs HubSpot: Scalability

Both solutions are cloud-based solutions and their architecture enables them to scale dynamically. It is important to serve 1000 customers as good as 1.000.000 of them.

Scalability means that not only the performance is good but workflows and processes enable your team to work on multiple levels of authorizations, roles, and business units while having the same understanding of goals, customers, and performance. A scalable solution enables users to access all necessary up-to-date data quickly and whenever needed.

Can Salesforce Help You Scale?

Definitely! Salesforce DNA is about high scalability and high availability. Salesforce can handle tens of millions of users. It is broadly used by the largest corporations in the world.

Therefore as long as you have a positive business case for using Salesforce solution and using their experts to handle the maintenance, you are good to go.

Configuring and integrating add-ons is not the easiest part of it, but if done correctly it scales with your business smoothly.

Can HubSpot Help You Scale?

There are no doubts about if HubSpot scales. This is a cloud-based solution capable to handle from 1 to millions of customers and users. The HubSpot advantage is that add-ons are much easier to integrate into your workflows.

Probably this is because of the all-in-one platform derived from the one-code platform with customizations limited to an established framework. By following the framework, your processes must meet particular rules and therefore the solution has a higher “integrity” factor.

Anyway, there is no winner in the category of Scalability. Both solutions are scalable. HubSpot is definitely cheaper to scale up, but on the other hand, brings less flexibility. It follows the costs. So if you are a Small Medium Enterprise and costs matter – choose HubSpot.

Salesforce vs HubSpot: Customization

Customization means that you can change the look and feel of the application, add or remove features, or even change the behavior of the application to meet your specific needs.

Both Salesforce and HubSpot offer a lot of customization options, but Salesforce is more complex and expensive while HubSpot is easier to configure and cheaper.

Can you customize Salesforce?

Salesforce offers endless customization options, which can be tailored to fit the needs of your specific business. You can easily add or remove fields, configure workflows, and more.

Salesforce provides two main ways to customize:

1. Lightning Process Builder
2. Visual Workflow (Flow)

Both of these tools allow Salesforce users to automate business processes by creating “Flows” or “Processes”. These can be used to automate simple tasks, such as sending an email when a customer is created, or more complex processes, such as order fulfillment.

Flows can be triggered by a variety of events, such as the creation of a new record, an update to an existing record, or the deletion of a record. Salesforce provides a wide variety of “action elements” that can be used in flows, such as creating records, updating records, sending emails, or calling Apex code.

Flows can also be used to gather information from users via “interactive elements” such as screens, which can be used to display information to the user or collect input from the user.

Process Builder is a point-and-click tool that allows Salesforce users to automate business processes by creating “Flows”. Processes can be triggered by a variety of events, such as the creation of a new record, an update to an existing record, or the deletion of a record.

However, Salesforce can be quite complex and it can be difficult to configure everything exactly the way you want it. In addition, Salesforce is quite expensive and may not be affordable for smaller businesses.

If you want to avoid wasting time by manual processes, a CRM that practically reads your mind is exactly what you need when scaling up. You also won’t have to spend an arm and a leg on consultants or full-time Salesforce admins.

If you’re looking for an immediate solution, Salesforce is not the platform for you. You’ll need to consult with a professional and allocate time to get everyone oriented with the system.

Can you customize HubSpot?

HubSpot offers only a few customization options, and they are more related to configuration or 3rd party systems integration rather than a full-blown customized solution.

You can customize:

• personalize content in your HubSpot emails, website pages, and landing pages
• the available field options on an individual form basis
• Custom objects. These are the objects that let you store whatever information you want to keep as long as it follows HubSpot standard objects (Contacts, Companies, Deals, Tickets, Products, and Tasks).

So, as long as you like out-of-the-box HubSpot solutions and you are ready to perform only minor reconfigurations, without spending a fortune, then HubSpot is for you.

The solution you choose is a matter of your business’s ultimate goals and preferences.

Salesforce vs HubSpot: Integration

The real power and value are in the available integrations. Both solutions provide a solid marketplace for add-ons.

The HubSpot add-ons marketplace is called App Collections, while Salesforce calls it AppExchange.

Salesforce AppExchange – Ready-to-install apps and solutions for Salesforce

A complete list of available applications can be found on the Salesforce site. I am not going to bring them all here. They are pretty easy to search for with an intuitive search bar.

What is more, Salesforce updated recently the way the apps’ pricing is presented. The new app listing experience provides more clarity on pricing models, as well as descriptions of in-app purchases so you can make the best purchase decisions for your business.

Hubspot’s Marketplace – App Collections for HubSpot

HubSpot Marketplace is no different. Needless to say that at the moment of writing this article there were 411 FREE applications available. On top of that, there are myriads of apps available in higher pricing tiers plans.

They are categorized as well and the search engine is intuitive and straightforward. You will have no issues with finding what you need.

Salesforce vs HubSpot: Ease of Admin

As your business grows, your needs will change. We hope you continue to grow forever 🙂

To achieve your goals, your CRM tool must keep up with your growth.

Is Salesforce easy to maintain?

Let’s face it!

Salesforce is not easy to maintain. You’ll need to consult with a professional and allocate time to get everyone oriented with the system.

Salesforce is more difficult to manage for the following reasons:

– Salesforce is complex and can be difficult to configure

– Salesforce is expensive and may not be affordable for smaller businesses

I will give an example.

Usually, companies either hire full-time Salesforce admins or work with consultants.

Again, Salesforce is a complex tool. It gives you plenty of options for customization. But that makes it pretty complicated in the long term.

Let’s say you realize you need a particular add-on that either connects your CTI or improves your Sales Team performance.

You can’t simply approach a Salesforce representative and state: “Hey, we need this add-on.” and then have it magically installed in your solution.

The upgrade process is more complicated than simply requesting the change. You must also ensure that your employees are properly trained to use it.

The problems that companies face when they don’t hire full-time Salesforce admins are costly and time-consuming. Your reps constantly have to learn new things and adapt, which in turn slows down processes and makes them less efficient.

And that’s what your CRM shouldn’t be about.

Dear Salesforce – an area for improvement. 😉

Hubspot ease of admin

HubSpot is not ideal, however, the process of administrating it is easier. You do not need to hire a full-time HubSpot consultant to keep your machine running.

HubSpot offers great support that helps you get everything set up. 

The CRM ecosystem has higher internal integrity so by default, it generates fewer problems.

Bringing a full-time HubSpot admin on board is possible, but even then they’ll focus on helping you get the most out of your CRM tool, instead of putting out fires and finding “new” reasons of updating already working solutions 😉 Ok. That was a joke, but you know what I mean.

Speaking of things, HubSpot is intuitive and created to make your life easier so you can focus on doing business instead of configuring the tool all day long.

Salesforce vs HubSpot: Support and Service

Both companies offer excellent support. The trick is that Salesforce provides it mostly for a significant remuneration, whereas HubSpot offers a lot for free or for a competitive price.

Salesforce Support and Service

Salesforce offers a variety of support options, including:

• SalesforceIQ help – it’s a self-service tool that lets you find solutions to your own questions.
• Salesforce Trailblazer Community – it is a forum where you can ask questions and get help from other Salesforce users.
• Salesforce online support – it is a searchable database of Salesforce knowledge articles.
• Salesforce phone support – it is a service that lets you speak with a Salesforce representative over the phone.

Salesforce’s support options are comprehensive and include a variety of ways to get help.

Check for the pricing tiers and level of support they are offering. Free support is limited to self-learning materials.

Hubspot Support and Service

HubSpot support and service are comprehensive and include a variety of ways to get help.

You can access help articles, speak with a representative over the phone, or ask questions and get help from other HubSpot users on the forums.

HubSpot’s support options are designed to help you find solutions to your own questions.

Salesforce vs HubSpot: User Feedback

Based on the three objective sources the overall user experience with HubSpot is better than with Salesforce. However, there are some peculiarities and it is not black and white.

According to Gartner both Salesforce Sales Cloud and HubSpot Sales ticked 4.4 stars.

When taking under consideration the G2 survey, HubSpot wins against Salesforce in the overall match by just about 0.1 points, however, there are differences if we deep dive into particular market segments.

At the enterprise level, Salesforce takes it all, there is no doubt about it. It is highly customizable but it has its price, therefore only the largest one can afford it in the long run.

On the other hand, if you are a small business owner or even a mid-level business HubSpot might fit your needs and pocket better.

HubSpot and Salesforce Integration

Is HubSpot Salesforce integration possible?

Yes, it is possible. Actually, there are connectors available in the AppExchange or in the HubSpot Marketplace where you can perform this.

When performing the integration, you can start it from HubSpot by running an app “Salesforce”.

The process is smooth as long as you are accepting the following limitations:

• HubSpot integrates with 3 main Salesforce modules (CRM, Sales, Marketing)
• HubSpot exchanges the following data: Contacts, Companies, Deals, Tasks
• Salesforce integrates with the following HubSpot Features:

1. CRM: Company records, Contact & company insights, Contact activity, Contact Management, Deals, Email Scheduling
2. Marketing: Email marketing, Forms, Salesforce integration
3. Sales: Salesforce integration

Switching from Salesforce to HubSpot

Is it possible to switch from Salesforce to HubSpot?

The short answer is yes, but…

It all depends on how deep your organization is already “in” the particular solution. This is not a question about “is it possible”, but about the costs of exiting from one solution and getting into a new one.

Keep in mind not only the features but:

1. Data migration
2. Coexistence period and paying for both solutions unless one is closed
3. Change management – all the necessary actions you need to take to teach your users of new solutions and have their “buy-in”.
4. Customizations are needed but not possible and workarounds you will need to take
5. Overall business case and TCO

What are customers saying?

Let me give you just a few examples

Hubspot customers

Salesforce customers

The Winner!

Hmm. It depends. For sure if you are just taking off, then there is no other option like going with HubSpot. If you have tons of money and a clear uptrend revenue stream that makes your Business Case positive, then go with Salesforce.

I am using HubSpot because it meets 100% of my goals for a fair price. I am running a service-oriented business.