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 Zendesk Sell?
In this comparison, we’ll break down the key differences between HubSpot and Zendesk, 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 Zendesk 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.
Zendesk Sell is built with simplicity and ease of use in mind, offering a clean and intuitive interface that caters predominantly to sales teams.
The platform's user-friendly design allows for quick navigation and efficient management of sales activities, as one user highlighted the platform's ease of use:
The interface is intuitive and easy to use, and I was able to get started right away.
As for onboarding, Zendesk offers a process that is structured to facilitate rapid adoption, with guided setup processes that assist new users in creating contacts, deals, and tasks. This approach is beneficial for teams aiming to minimise the learning curve associated with new CRM systems. However, some users have noted challenges with this onboarding and configuration stage.
One user review on G2 noted:
The configuration could take a lot of time and can be stressful if you are not an expert.
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.
Meanwhile, Zendesk Sell is designed to offer a streamlined CRM experience, focusing on ease of use and integration with the broader Zendesk ecosystem. While it provides essential customisation options such as editable fields, adjustable sales pipelines, and workflow automations, its flexibility is more limited compared to platforms that prioritise extensive configurability.
As with most of its competitors, Users can customise sales pipelines, add and modify fields, configure deal stages, and adjust views to surface the most relevant information for each individual user. This makes it a suitable option for teams with straightforward sales processes that still require some flexibility. One user highlighted this positively:
I also liked the ability to customise fields and contact list views, so I could tailor the platform to my business needs.
However, Zendesk Sell’s flexibility has clear limits. This is particularly evident in organisations that require advanced workflows, complex data structures or deep automation. The platform does not support full custom objects or multi-layered relational data models, which can restrict usage for more complex sales operations.
This approach may work best for teams looking for a lightweight CRM tightly integrated with customer support operations, but less so for those looking for industry-specific or highly customisable workflows.
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 mentioned previously, Zendesk Sell is designed to streamline sales operations, offering a suite of features that prioritise usability and integration within the broader Zendesk ecosystem. Its core functionalities encompass contact and deal management, activity tracking, and sales forecasting, all designed to enhance sales team efficiency.
Whilst this is fairly normal for all CRM systems out on the market, some users have limitations in the platform's feature set, particularly when compared to more comprehensive CRM solutions. A reviewer mentioned:
Stale in features, no support for Messaging or modern custom objects.
Of course, you can extend Zendesk Sell’s feature-set by integrating third party integrations alongside the native functionality (something we’ll come to later), but if you’re not entrenched in the Zendesk ‘sphere’, then alternatives like HubSpot may be more aligned with your needs.
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.
Comparatively, Zendesk Sell comes in a lot cheaper than HubSpot due to the simplicity of the system. They price the system in 4 tiers, with an increasing level of functionality throughout.
It doesn't offer a completely free version for life, but it does provide a free trial and various pricing plans so you can choose a plan if you decide you want to use the system on an ongoing basis.
The four pricing tiers are:
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.
Similarly to HubSpot, Zendesk Sell integrates seamlessly with the rest of the Zendesk ecosystem, offering sales teams a unified platform that connects sales and support functions within your business.
The platform provides native integrations with popular tools such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Mailchimp, QuickBooks, and Slack. These integrations allow for streamlined workflows and data synchronisation, enhancing productivity. Additionally, Zendesk Sell integrates with connector apps like Zapier to expand its extensibility to over 1000+ more applications.
For developers and businesses requiring custom integrations, Zendesk Sell offers a suite of APIs, including the Core API for basic CRUD operations, the Sync API for data synchronisation, and the Firehose API for real-time data streaming.
However, it’s important to note that these APIs and advanced integration options are limited to higher-tier plans, in contrast to HubSpot, whose native integration database is open across tiers.
Choosing the right CRM comes down to your team’s needs, technical capabilities, and growth ambitions. While Zendesk 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.