Pipedrive vs. HubSpot: Which CRM Software Is Best?

Pipedrive vs. HubSpot Compared

Who Do We Recommend Pipedrive For?

Pipedrive is our pick for small businesses in need of a sales-focused CRM for lead generation and effective pipeline management. The drag-and-drop interface, simple, color-coded visualizations and useful automations will help your team stay on top of every deal.

We love that Pipedrive offers 5 affordable plans, so you can find a solution that fits your budget. You’ll get all the tools your sales team needs to succeed, including email functions. Businesses requiring expanded service can purchase marketing and project management add-ons. 

Pipedrive’s visual sales pipeline lets you see where deals are at a glance. Source: Pipedrive

Pipedrive excels as a process-first CRM thanks to these features:

• Easy-to-use, color-coded visual sales pipeline.
• Variety of cost-effective plans and add-ons.
• Customization, automation and report options for better customer management. 

Who Do We Recommend HubSpot For?

HubSpot’s CRM Suite is perfect for businesses with multiple departments looking for a unified solution that allows for collaboration and building strong customer relationships. It includes extensive features from HubSpot’s marketing, sales, operations and content management system (CMS) hubs and all your teams’ customer interactions are stored in the same place. Plus, with over 1,500 integrations, everyone can work with the tools they need to boost sales. 

We like that HubSpot offers a free plan, which is useful for tiny companies looking for basic CRM tools. However, the high price of paid plans and user and marketing contact limits means HubSpot won’t be the best choice to scale your business. 

HubSpot prioritizes connecting your team with contacts to build relationships and close deals. Source: HubSpot

We think these features make HubSpot a top all-in-one CRM solution:

• Centralized platform to communicate with contacts across all departments.
• A free plan with limited tools from all hubs and paid plans with heaps of tools and features.
• More than 1,500 external integrations.

Pipedrive vs. HubSpot Comparison

Price and Plans

Pipedrive

• There are five plans ranging from $14.90 to $119. 
• You can scale up affordably as business grows.
• All plans allow a 14-day free trial.

We love that Pipedrive offers five affordable plans, so businesses of all sizes can choose a cost-effective solution. You can test drive plans with a 14-day free trial and save up to 32% when billed annually. 

Unlimited customizable sales pipelines and contacts come standard. Limits on open deals, custom fields, reports, dashboards and automations depend on the plan. Many advanced features are only found in the top-tier plans. We like that most of Pipedrive’s add-ons, such as LeadBooster and SmartDocs, are charged per company, keeping costs down.  

HubSpot

• There’s a free plan with basic tools from all hubs.
• Paid plans offer many features but are expensive and have user limits.
• You might have to pay for onboarding or adding users.

HubSpot charges a flat rate with limited users per plan. We appreciate that the Free Tools plan allows everyone at your company access to the platform’s basic features. You can add paid users for extra but it can become costly.

The CRM suite offers a comprehensive solution, but for smaller businesses, we think the high price tag, especially for plans with advanced features, might be prohibitive. We don’t like that paid plans require an annual commitment or the steep onboarding fees for premium plans. We would have liked a free trial option.

Winner: Pipedrive

Pipedrive is our choice for small businesses looking for affordable CRM software to meet your needs and budget. As your business grows, Pipedrive allows you to scale up without breaking the bank.

HubSpot’s free plan is a decent option for very small businesses with limited CRM needs, but we think their extensive suite of paid features better serve large companies.

Sales Pipeline

Pipedrive

• Easily visualize deal progress with the color-coded pipeline.
• Deal rotting alerts you to inactive deals.
• Deal filters let you search by deal type or employee.

Deal rotting alerts you to inactive deals, allowing you to take action or schedule activities. Source: Pipedrive

Pipedrive’s visual sales pipeline sets it apart from the competition. The Kanban card system and color coding let you know where the deals are and what actions to prioritize. We love the deal rotting feature, and it’s something HubSpot doesn’t offer. It turns inactive deals red and triggers automated actions, allowing your team to intervene.

Building sales pipelines is easy thanks to the intuitive drag-and-drop interface, templates, custom fields and automations. As deals progress, sales forecasts, triggered actions and alerts keep your team on track. We found the deal filters especially useful. You can segment deals, check deals by type or status and monitor employees.

HubSpot

• Pipelines are easy to set up and customize.
• Analytics and lead scoring show deals’ value.
• Pipelines are limited.

HubSpot’s deal pipeline is straightforward but it isn’t as clear or digestible as Pipedrive’s. We like that new deals are added automatically from existing contacts in the CRM Suite or created easily through the drag-and-drop feature. Pipelines can be automated to help your team focus on the most pressing tasks. Analytics, sales forecasting and lead scoring lets you know which deals are the most valuable. 

Unlike Pipedrive, pipelines are limited with all plans.  We were disappointed that many of the advanced features, like lead scoring, only come with top-tier plans.

Winner: Pipedrive

Pipedrive wins because of its excellent visual sales pipeline that helps your team every step of the way converting leads to wins. Most of the features you need to succeed come standard, even though some are limited, while HubSpot’s best features are missing in the free and lower-priced plans.

Contact Management

Pipedrive

• Use simple forms to generate leads or try the LeadBooster add-on.
• The Smart Contact Data tool imports customer information from the web.
• Advanced features don’t come standard.

From Pipedrive’s centralized database, you can see contacts’ details, past interactions and other relevant information. We like that you can generate new leads with simple web forms or get advanced features with the LeadBooster add-on. The Smart Contact Data feature pulls customer information from the web, providing a complete picture instantly.

We appreciate that lead management is effortless through automations, templates and email targeting. We love that Pipedrive lets you send marketing emails to 100 contacts with staggered delivery to avoid scheduled emailed blockers. 

We were disappointed that many features, such as the visual Contact Timeline and group emailing, don’t come standard.

HubSpot

• Contact data syncs from all departments and a huge database of companies.
• Most contact management tools come standard.
• All plans have a limited number of marketing contacts. 

HubSpot excels at helping you convert contacts into customers. Data is stored centrally but pulled from CRM Suite’s hubs and from a database of over 20 million companies. We love that teams can collaborate from a shared space to provide unified personal communications.

We like that the most useful features, such as lead segmentation, chatbots, templates and email reply tracking come with all plans, although some have limits. Paid plans have many additional features like automatic conversation routing.

One downside is that all plans have a limited number of marketing contacts, so companies that need to reach a large audience will end up paying a lot to add contacts.

Winner: HubSpot

HubSpot beats Pipedrive because of its extensive contact management features that allow you to find, segment and communicate with leads from a central location ― even with the free plan. While Pipedrive offers a quality contact database, its focus is limited to sales and email marketing.

Automations

Pipedrive

• Use templates or build custom automations for the entire pipeline.
• The Sales Assistant gives automation tips.
• Automation isn’t standard and comes with limits.

We like that Pipedrive makes it easy to use templates or build custom automations for every step of the sales process. You can set up triggers so actions like sending out personalized emails or transferring deals to other representatives will take place automatically as contacts move along the pipeline. We found the AI-powered Sales Assistant that gives performance and automation tips especially useful. 

We were disappointed that timesaving automation isn’t available with the Essentials plan and is otherwise limited.

HubSpot

• Limited email automations come with the free plan.
• Additional automations including customized workflows depend on the plan.
• You can trigger actions in external software integrations.

HubSpot offers limited email automation for free, but additional automations require a paid plan and the best features cost the most. The Starter plan includes triggered actions and notifications. High-tier plans allow you to create a limited number of customized CRM workflows and action sequences. We found creating workflows complex and may require using HubSpot’s learning resources. We appreciate that you can trigger actions in many of the business tools HubSpot integrates with.

Winner: Tie

We like that HubSpot and Pipedrive both make importing contact information and nurturing leads simple, so your team can focus on more complicated tasks. But we were disappointed that automation doesn’t come standard with either provider. It’s easier to set up workflows with Pipedrive, but HubSpot allows triggered actions in more third-party tools. 

Integrations

Pipedrive

• The Marketplace has more than 480 integrations.
• You can build custom integrations.
• Top email software two-way syncs with Pipedrive.

Pipedrive makes integrating with more than 480 business solutions from their Marketplace a breeze. We love that you can share data with the top marketing automation, customer support and accounting software. Plus, you can build custom integrations with Pipedrive’s API.

With two-way sync, any updates in your Google, Outlook or Microsoft 365 email or calendar show up in Pipedrive too. 

HubSpot

• HubSpot integrates with over 1,500 business solutions.
• Data syncs automatically with HubSpot-build integrations.
• You can build custom apps and integrations.

Although HubSpot offers a comprehensive CRM solution, we love that they want your team to be as productive as possible, allowing you to integrate with the software you already use, even competitors’ CRM solutions. You can find over 1,500 integrations in their extensive App Marketplace.

Automatic data syncing with HubSpot-built integrations makes it even easier for departments to work across tools. There’s also a developer platform to build apps and custom integrations.

Winner: HubSpot

HubSpot wins because of its extensive library of integrations that allows your team to benefit from all the features of HubSpot’s CRM Suite while continuing to use the solutions they already love. 

Additional Features

Pipedrive

• You can purchase add-ons to expand service.
• Visual reports are easy to digest.
• Additional features are restricted to high-tier plans.

Pipedrive’s features are focused on managing contacts along the sales pipeline. We appreciate that you can purchase add-ons for marketing campaigns, project management and document management. However, businesses with complex needs should seek a more comprehensive solution.

We love that Pipedrive’s highly visual interface extends to its reporting tools. Deal, activity and revenue forecast reports are easy to access and understand. You’ll also get performance management tools, but we were disappointed that most additional features are restricted to premium plans. 

HubSpot

• Extensive tools for all customer-facing departments.
• Excellent reporting tools come standard.
• Many features only come with the most expensive plans.

HubSpot’s CRM suite is a complete business solution meant for all your business departments. Every team can better communicate with contacts thanks to the huge array of features, such as a website builder, blogs, multilanguage content, SEO analytics, social media tools, calling features and canned responses.

We like that HubSpot’s thorough CRM analytics tools come standard. You can use templates or build custom reports to analyze your team’s performance, see where leads are coming from and determine how to allocate resources.

HubSpot’s reports are customizable and easy to understand. Source: HubSpot

Winner: HubSpot

HubSpot is the best option for businesses that need extensive CRM features across all business departments. Teams can work from one central platform with an almost endless list of tools and features.

Small businesses need to keep in mind that many features are only offered in the expensive, highest-tier plans.  

Customer Support

Pipedrive

• You get 24/7 live chat support but phone support isn’t universal.
• Online resources help you navigate the platform.

Pipedrive offers 24/7 customer support over live chat in 22 languages, but we were disappointed that only premium plans get phone assistance and onboarding services.

Users can learn how to navigate the platform and troubleshoot issues with online Knowledge Base articles, the Pipedrive Community forum and the Pipedrive Academy’s tutorial courses, webinars and videos. 

HubSpot

• Support options depend on your plan.
• Free plans can use online learning resources and forums.

HubSpot offers reliable email and in-app chat service, but only the Professional and Enterprise plans provide phone support. Free plans don’t get live support, but all users have access to community forums and the HubSpot Academy’s courses, certifications and other learning resources. HubSpot provides paid onboarding and training services but prices are costly. 

Winner: Tie 

Pipedrive and HubSpot offer similar customer service. We found their extensive educational and troubleshooting resources to be useful, but we would have liked to see standard phone support.

Pipedrive vs. HubSpot Recap

Choose Pipedrive if:

• You want excellent visual sales-focused features.
• You need unlimited sales pipelines and email contacts.
• You’re looking for an affordable plan that can scale with your business.

Choose HubSpot if:

• You want a unified platform for all departments to communicate with customers.
• You need to integrate your CRM with other business solutions.
• You’re looking for extensive features for all areas of your business.

FAQs

What does Pipedrive do?

Pipedrive logs every contact interaction in a central database and provides your teams with the tools to best serve customers and drive sales. 

What does HubSpot do?

HubSpot centralizes customer information from all your business departments so your teams can collaborate effectively to build customer loyalty and grow revenue. 

Is HubSpot only a CRM?

HubSpot is a unified CRM platform, but it offers stand-alone hubs for marketing, sales, customer service, CMS and operations. 

Can Pipedrive be used as a CRM?

Yes, Pipedrive is a CRM built around the sales pipeline.