MENU
Online only. Expires 4/27/2024
When they first launched, customer relationship management (CRM) systems were designed to help businesses look after their clients better. Since then, their scope has extended into almost every business area, from sales and marketing to inventory management.
Two of the most popular and best CRMs available on the market today are HubSpot and Zendesk. In this comparison, we review each one side by side to help you decide which is the most suitable for your business.
Here’s a comparison of HubSpot and Zendesk at a glance.
Criteria | HubSpot | Zendesk |
---|---|---|
Starting prices | Free | $19 per user, per month |
Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
Sales and marketing tools | Multiplatform campaigns, active lists and online lead capture | Multichannel, power dialer, smart lists and data enrichment |
Customer service features | Detailed customer data, multichannel support and self-service option | Customer interaction logging, sophisticated ticketing and self-service option |
Workflows and automation | Prebuilt sales workflows, case resolution workflows and referral program management | Two types of automation, side conversations, light agents and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven workflows |
Data and analytics | Attribution reporting, historical reports and 13 prebuilt business reports | Dashboard data customization, customer service quality analysis and two reporting outputs |
Apps and integrations | 1,000 apps, webhooks and robust application programming interface (API) | 1,000 apps, API integration and knowledge base themes |
HubSpot is one of the best CRM platforms on the market for companies that want better results from their sales and marketing teams. It combines a depth of functionality with real ease of use, even on complex tasks like launching A/B test marketing campaigns and managing search engine optimization. Its built-in CRM data analytics are second to none and these insights will give your teams what they need to generate more leads and close more deals:
Read our complete review of the HubSpot CRM to find out more about what the platform offers in-depth.
The lead generation dashboard on HubSpot gives an overview of your contacts. Source: HubSpot
Zendesk excels for companies wanting to provide first-class after-sales service to customers. Its multichannel ticketing system is a standout and its smart routing means clients get through to the right staff member when contacting your business. Zendesk will reduce staff workloads and enable quicker complaint and query resolution. The AI built into the system is particularly helpful, providing agents with on-screen prompts to increase the chance of a first contact resolution. Zendesk’s AI will even help you build out an effective self-service customer portal. This solution also benefits from a highly usable and flexible sales and marketing platform:
To learn more about the platform and its features, read our up-to-date review of the Zendesk CRM.
The main dashboard within Zendesk shows statistics on customer interactions and related information. Source: Zendesk
We’ve analyzed HubSpot and Zendesk across five key areas ranging from sales and marketing to apps and integrations, in addition to the all-important pricing.
HubSpot
Plan | Starting Price per Month | Features |
---|---|---|
Free Tier | Free |
|
Starter | $30 for two users | Everything in the Free tier, plus:
|
Professional | $1,600 for five users | Everything in Starter, plus:
|
Enterprise | $5,000 for 10 users | Everything in Professional, plus:
|
The prices shown above are for the HubSpot CRM suite with annual prepayment. A monthly payment option is available, but it’ll cost you a lot more. At between $320 and $500 a head on the higher-level plans, HubSpot is already a significant investment. However, it’s intuitive, feature-packed and highly customizable.
Keep in mind, though, that there are other fees to factor in over and above costs related to plug-ins and apps. For example, there’s a $3,000 onboarding fee on the Professional tier. There are other fees tied to API calls, a WhatsApp integration and dedicated IPs. As a result, it can be hard to see how much the service will truly cost you at the outset.
Zendesk
There are two interoperable CRMs in Zendesk: one focused on sales (Zendesk Sell) and one on customer service (Zendesk Service). We’ve broken down the pricing accordingly.
Zendesk Sell Plan | Price per User, per Month | Features |
---|---|---|
Team | $19 |
|
Growth | $49 | Everything in Team, plus:
|
Professional | $99 | Everything in Growth, plus:
|
Enterprise | $150 | Everything in Professional, plus:
|
Zendesk Service Plan | Price per User, per Month | Features |
---|---|---|
Team | $55 |
|
Growth | $89 | Everything in Team, plus:
|
Professional | $115 | Everything in Growth, plus:
|
Enterprise | Quoted-based | Everything in Professional, plus:
|
Prices shown are for annual subscriptions — monthly subscriptions cost around 20 percent more. Zendesk has no free plan like HubSpot does, but it does offer a 14-day free trial.
Some of the most valuable features attract an extra charge, like $50 per user, per month for Advanced AI (only available to Professional and Enterprise subscribers), while the ticketing system costs $19 to $115 per agent per month.
Winner: HubSpot
At the highest tiers, the price difference between the two platforms isn’t great, but what decides it for HubSpot is its range of features makes it better value for your money. The cost may give you sticker shock at first but these are competitive prices for the sector.
Check out our review of the Freshworks Freshsales CRM if you want to try another provider that offers a free plan like HubSpot.
HubSpot
Zendesk
Winner: HubSpot
HubSpot wins thanks to its tightly integrated and comprehensive marketing platform that includes highly effective and customizable list management and lead nurturing tools. However, Zendesk will perform very well for simpler sales cycles.
The deal pipeline management feature in HubSpot allows you to study changes in sales over a given period. Source: HubSpot
HubSpot
Zendesk
Winner: Zendesk
Zendesk takes this round thanks to its excellent ticketing system, better AI integration for agents and superb Zendesk Guide knowledge feature.
If you’re already using a third-party email, SMS or voice-over-internet-protocol provider and would prefer to continue using them instead of what HubSpot or Zendesk natively offer, check to see that they are compatible before signing up with your CRM of choice.
HubSpot
Zendesk
Winner: HubSpot
HubSpot has the edge because you can set and automate a wider range of business workflows quickly and easily. Zendesk is not far behind, however, and we were amazed by the Sunshine development platform.
Siloing of information is one of the reasons many businesses don’t grow as fast as they could. With a centralized CRM database, colleagues across your company can have access to the same data and be able to share their insights with each other.
The intuitive workflow automation building in Zendesk lets you set up automatic actions with different triggers. Source: Zendesk
HubSpot
Zendesk
Winner: HubSpot
HubSpot is the narrow victor in this category because its range of data analytic and reporting tools gives a more holistic view of your overall business.
HubSpot
Zendesk
Winner: HubSpot
Despite having similar numbers of apps, HubSpot wins out here because of its comprehensive API and its inclusion of webhooks.
Choose HubSpot if…
Choose Zendesk if…
Whether Zendesk is better than HubSpot will depend on your business needs. HubSpot and Zendesk are both advanced and popular CRM systems that are easy to use, but HubSpot generally is better at improving sales and marketing within businesses while Zendesk offers superior customer service management.
Salesforce is the biggest competitor of HubSpot because it’s the market leader, but HubSpot itself is a very popular CRM used in over 120 countries. Other major competitors to HubSpot include Zendesk, Keap, Zoho, Oracle NetSuite and Pipedrive.
Zendesk and HubSpot are stand-alone systems. However, some companies use HubSpot to manage their sales and marketing while others use Zendesk to manage customer service. There are plug-ins between the two platforms that allow you to use the functionality of, for example, Zendesk within the HubSpot dashboard.
Zendesk is considered by many as one of the best CRMs for managing customer service teams and the complete customer lifecycle thanks to its advanced ticketing system, workflow automations and increasing integration of smart AI.