Choosing the right CRM can transform how you attract, engage, and delight customers, but with so many options on the market, it’s hard to know which platform truly delivers.
HubSpot is often seen as one of the premier choices for growing B2B businesses thanks to its all-in-one suites, intuitive interface, and powerful automation tools.
But how does it stack up against Salesforce?
In this comparison, we’ll break down the key differences between HubSpot and Salesforce, looking at everything from features and flexibility to pricing to technical details, such as integrations, which will help you decide which platform fits your business best.
A slight caveat before we get into the meat of this article - we’re a HubSpot Solutions Partner. We’re well-versed in working with the platform, and we think it’s a brilliant fit for most B2B businesses. However, we would never recommend it if it doesn’t fit your specific business requirements.
Throughout this article, we will give an impartial comparison between HubSpot and Salesforce to help you make the correct decision for your circumstance.
Starting with HubSpot, there are numerous ways to get onboarded and started within the system. You can start with:
Either one of the three is effective in getting you started and helping you set up your portal in the correct way. And once you’re set up, you can take advantage of the numerous products that HubSpot offers.
Whilst, like all other CRMs, there may be an initial learning curve, HubSpot's user-friendly design supports businesses in effectively leveraging the platform's capabilities to drive growth and improve customer engagement. One user on G2 commented by saying:
Hubspot is very helpful, offering a robust way to learn and manage service, sales, and marketing. Its built-in help resources and user-friendly tools have made it much easier to understand and implement key business strategies.
With its wide array of tools and features across its three tiers, Starter, Professional and Enterprise (including a stripped-back, free version too), HubSpot is known for combining sales, marketing, service, operations and, most recently, eCommerce functionality within its suite. This makes it ideal for those B2B businesses looking to scale their business without the investment into a wide tech stack that needs external integrations to merge with your CRM.
On the other hand, the other most popular CRM on the market, Salesforce is renowned for its robust capabilities and extensive customisation options.
It offers flexibility through custom objects, page layouts, automation flows, role-based access, and integrations — all of which can be adapted to reflect a business’s exact needs. Especially for enterprise-level customers, this can be a massive advantage as some reviewers have quipped that the platform can do ‘practically anything’ you want it to do.
However, that flexibility comes at a cost: usability.
The sheer breadth of configuration options can make Salesforce overwhelming for new users or smaller teams without dedicated technical support. Navigating the system and understanding how all the components fit together often requires onboarding support from consultants, administrators, or extensive internal training.
One Capterra user captured this well:
You basically need a degree in SalesForce (sic) for it to be worth the incredibly high cost. It is not designed for small businesses.
Onboarding-wise, Salesforce’s Trailhead platform provides interactive tutorials and structured learning paths, enabling users to gain proficiency at their own pace. Additionally, Salesforce's community forums and extensive documentation serve as valuable support tools.
HubSpot’s flexibility is one of the key reasons businesses continue to scale with - and use - the platform. With the ability to create custom properties, objects, workflows, and dashboards, teams can shape the system around their exact processes rather than adapting their processes to fit the tool.
Whether it’s segmenting contacts with bespoke criteria, building out tailored sales pipelines, or automating marketing workflows based on specific behaviours, HubSpot’s customisation options and flexibility enable users to design a system that mirrors their real-world operations. As one G2 reviewer puts it:
Adapt quickly with a flexible system that allows you to architect your business exactly as it appears in the real world... without months of custom dev work.
This level of adaptability means that even as your business evolves, HubSpot evolves with you, without the need for expensive development work or third-party tools.
Being an all-in-one platform which encompasses other operational tools, Odoo is lauded for its customisation and flexibility tools.
As mentioned earlier, Salesforce is renowned for its flexibility and customisation opportunities within the CRM.
Similar to HubSpot, it gives businesses control to shape the platform around their unique processes. From custom objects and page layouts to complex automation, third-party integrations, and even fully bespoke applications via the Salesforce AppExchange, the platform is built for extensibility. This is especially useful for big teams with extensive technology departments.
However, as also alluded to, this introduces the need for external developers, consultants or investing in building an internal Salesforce management team. Even seemingly simple changes can lead to unintended consequences with your customer data, which is why most businesses employ or outsource to experienced Salesforce administrators.
For teams prioritising agility, speed, and ease of ownership, you may be better off going with HubSpot as it provides a better balance between power and usability.
This will be no surprise, but HubSpot’s main standout strength is its unified system across all business departments.
From marketing automation and sales pipelines to customer service, CMS, and operations, every tool is designed to work together on a single platform. This native integration removes the friction of jumping between disconnected systems and gives teams a clearer, shared view of the customer journey. It also connects up to your CRM, which enables your users to have a single-view of the customer.
What really sets HubSpot apart, though, is the balance between depth and usability.
Each Hub is feature-rich in its own right, with a level of practicality that you would usually assume to be reserved for specialist, independent tools. Having all these tools under a single umbrella enables businesses to take advantage without the need to patch together a load of third-party apps. As one reviewer puts it:
HubSpot is more than just a CRM – it's an ecosystem of powerful tools that seamlessly integrate to help you grow.
As we’ve said throughout, Salesforce and HubSpot are the unmatched rivals in the CRM space. Salesforce’s Sales Cloud is just one piece of a vast suite that includes Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and more - just like HubSpot.
Similarly, its feature set is extensive. Opportunity management, advanced reporting, AI-powered insights with Einstein, territory planning, forecasting, and CPQ (configure-price-quote) tools, all available within an enterprise-grade framework. Combined with its AppExchange, Salesforce provides a highly extensible environment capable of supporting complex larger enterprises.
But its downfall is exactly what we’ve been saying throughout - the complexity of the tool normally requires a developer or consultant who understands the system inside out. Whereas HubSpot is built for user-based development, Salesforce is a highly technical product suits which requires someone with expertise to piece everything together.
If you have that in-house, then great. But more than likely you will HAVE to outsource or hire to make the most out of the CRM system.
This is where HubSpot can get tricky, as it’s not exactly a cheap option if you want all the bells and whistles.
HubSpot offers a free CRM option, but only allows you to store up to 1,000 non-marketing contacts within this tier. From there, if you want the customer platform (which is the bundle which encompasses all ‘Hubs’), it comes priced at:
However, what HubSpot does allow you to do is scale your tiers as you grow and adopt new features within ALL tiers if you choose the customer platform option. However, if you don’t you can also pick and choose what tier of each suite and make your own, personalised bundle - something that other CRM providers don’t often allow.
Salesforce pricing is a little different as it’s split out into enterprise pricing tiers and SMB pricing tiers. Below is the breakdown:
Enterprise - £132 per user per month
Unlimited - £264 per user per month
Einstein 1 Sales - £400 per user per month
Starter - £20 per user per month
Professional - £80 per user per month
Although cheaper on paper than HubSpot, that doesn’t paint the full picture. See, the complexity and the need to outsource for Salesforce development increases the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the system.
Aptitude8 did a report on the TCO of HubSpot vs Salesforce CRM and found:
The initial cost of HubSpot may be higher than it’s arch nemesis, but it’s worth considering how much you’ll be spending down the road and whether it’s worth the investment.
The final comparison point is regarding integrations and how easy it is to connect multiple apps to the CRM.
Firstly, HubSpot offers an extensive integrations ecosystem, featuring over 1,500 native integrations through its App Marketplace. This allows users to connect their CRM with a wide array of tools, including, for example, QuickBooks, Microsoft Teams, LinkedIn Sales Navigator and other ERP & CRM tools.
This connectivity ensures that data flows smoothly between platforms, including HubSpot’s CRM, which reduces manual input and enhances operational efficiency. A Capterra user highlighted the value of HubSpot’s integration abilities by saying:
The integrations of HubSpot are unmatched, big reason they charge big is those ecosystem integrations.
This flexibility ensures that, as your business evolves and introduces more systems into your tech stack, HubSpot can adapt with you without needing substantial change.
Salesforce, in the same vein, has its AppExchange, which offers over 3,000 third-party apps and integrations, covering everything from marketing automation and ERP to document signing and finance platforms.
It also boasts a powerful API and a suite of developer tools that allow businesses to build highly tailored integrations and custom apps within the Salesforce environment - if you have the technical expertise.
For enterprise organisations with the internal resources or partner network to support it, this extensibility is a strength. Salesforce can effectively serve as the backbone of a highly connected tech stack, particularly in complex or regulated industries. As one G2 reviewer puts it:
Salesforce integrates with nearly everything. But expect to pay a premium in time and expertise to get everything working exactly how you want.
Choosing the right CRM comes down to your team’s needs, technical capabilities, and growth ambitions. While Salesforce may offer strong features in certain areas, HubSpot stands out for its ease of use, unified ecosystem, and scalability, particularly for growing B2B businesses.
If you're leaning towards HubSpot and want to get implementation right from day one, download our 5 Stages of HubSpot Implementation guide. It walks you through each phase of a successful rollout, helping you avoid common pitfalls and maximise ROI from the get-go.