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 SharpSpring?

In this comparison, we’ll break down the key differences between HubSpot and SharpSpring, 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.

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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 SharpSpring to help you make the correct decision for your circumstance.

1. Ease of Use and Onboarding

Starting with HubSpot, there are numerous ways to get onboarded and started within the system. You can start with:

A DIY implementation - This requires you to set it up yourself. If you need support, then steal our HubSpot Implementation playbook to give you a head start.
HubSpot’s Onboarding Programme - HubSpot offers an onboarding product which helps you set up the essentials within your portal.
Partner-led Onboarding - This is where you employ an agency to help you get set up on the platform, working with outsourced experts to mould your processes around your portal.

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

Meanwhile, SharpSpring positions itself as a powerful all-in-one marketing solution and CRM system with features aimed at agencies and fast-growing businesses.

With regards to onboarding, it offers live support and onboarding guidance, including access to training resources and account reps. However, to make the most out of the system, it’s recommended to have a technical or expert team in-house that can unlock the full potential of the system.

Another pitfall noted in many reviews is the user experience. One of the most consistent pieces of user feedback centres on its complexity. As a reviewer on Gartner observed:

Though the clunky UI and confusing layout lead to spending much more time in the platform than anticipated. With this – onboarding a new user or even becoming a power user can take weeks, if not months.

SharpSpring may appeal to those seeking a feature-heavy tool and are prepared to invest time in mastering it. But for businesses prioritising ease of use and a smoother onboarding process, perhaps an alternative may be a better use of resources and time.

2. Customisation and Flexibility

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.

SharpSpring CRM, on the other hand, offers a range of customisation options designed to cater to businesses seeking tailored marketing automation solutions. Users can create custom fields, design unique pipelines, and set up automated workflows to align with their specific business needs.

A reviewer on Capterra highlighted the platform's adaptability:

SharpSpring has features to create marketing operations and track those campaigns either manually or automatically. Considering I can tie all the potential avenues of a campaign into one spot and see how users interact with is a great win.

However, some users have noted challenges with the platform's interface and design consistency, which can impact the ease of customisation. The same reviewer mentioned:

Interface and design consistency are my two significant cons for this platform. Like most, once you know the platform and its interface, you can be very successful.

This duality is something to consider if you’re thinking about choosing SharpSpring as your CRM and marketing solution going forward. It offers robust customisation capabilities suitable for businesses looking to tailor their CRM to specific needs, but if you’re looking for a platform which prioritises ease of use and a usable UX, it may be worth considering whether SharpSpring is your top option.

3. Features and Product Ecosystem

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.

Similarly, SharpSpring offers a suite of tools designed to streamline lead generation, nurturing and conversion in its platform, aiding sales and marketing teams. Some key features include behaviour-based email marketing, dynamic forms, landing page and blog builders, and buyer personas.

Another standout feature SharpSpring offers is its “Life of the Lead”, which provides a detailed timeline of a contact's interactions, enabling marketers to tailor their strategies effectively. HubSpot offers this informally through the CRM, but doesn’t visualise it in the way of SharSpring, something only marketing attribution tools like DreamData or HockeyStack do currently.

However, some users have noted that while SharpSpring offers a wide array of features, the platform can be less intuitive compared to competitors. For instance, a reviewer mentioned that the landing page and email builders could be improved in terms of usability

4. Pricing

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:

Starter: £45 per month (£41 per month if you want to pay £492 on an annual basis)
Professional: £1,932 per month (£1,738 per month if you want to pay £20,856 on an annual basis)
Enterprise: £5,151 per month

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.

SharpSpring doesn’t publicly display its pricing on its website, but it can be found on G2 under its parent company, Constant Contact.

Despite not offering a free or even a trial period, their prices are comparatively cheaper to HubSpot. Their platform is priced into three separate tiers, each with more advanced functionality than the last. These tiers are:

Lite - £8.90 per month
Standard - £25.94 per month
Premium - £59.30 per month

Without public pricing, we’re unable to determine if this price is representative of the number of users on the system or the number of contacts allowed within the CRM - just something to keep in mind.

5. Integration and Extensibility

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.

Finally, SharpSpring CRM offers a range of integration options designed to enhance its marketing automation capabilities. The platform provides native integrations with popular tools such as Salesforce, GoToWebinar, and Facebook Lead Ads.

For businesses seeking more customised solutions and with technical support, SharpSpring's open API allows for the development of bespoke integrations. This flexibility enables organisations to connect SharpSpring with proprietary systems or specialised applications, tailoring the platform to their specific needs. For a less technical way to integrate other systems with SharpSpring, you can use Zapier, which further expands its connectivity to a broader ecosystem of applications.

As with all API connections and integrations, the initial setup and configuration can be complex, particularly for those without technical expertise. This isn’t something singled out for SharpSpring, but, comparatively, HubSpot is often recognised for its user-friendly integration processes and extensive support resources.

In Summary...

Choosing the right CRM comes down to your team’s needs, technical capabilities, and growth ambitions. While SharpSpring 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.