Best HubSpot Alternatives 2026

HubSpot keeps showing up on “best CRM” lists, and for good reason — it’s genuinely good software. But a lot of teams sign up for the free CRM, get comfortable, then hit a wall when they realize the features they actually need sit behind a $800+/month paywall. That sticker shock sends thousands of people searching for alternatives every month.

Why Look for HubSpot Alternatives?

The pricing escalation is brutal. HubSpot’s free CRM is generous, but the jump to paid tiers is steep. Marketing Hub Professional starts at $800/month (with a $3,000 onboarding fee), and that price scales with your contact count. A 50,000-contact database on Marketing Hub Professional runs roughly $1,500/month in 2026. Sales Hub Professional is $90/seat/month with a mandatory 5-seat minimum. For a 10-person sales team with a decent-sized email list, you’re looking at $2,000-3,000/month easily.

Feature gating frustrates growing teams. Want to remove HubSpot branding from your forms? That’s a paid feature. Need more than 5 email templates? Paid. Custom reporting? Professional tier. Sequences for sales outreach? Sales Hub Professional. The free plan hooks you in, but useful features are scattered across different Hubs at different price points. I’ve watched companies end up paying for three separate Hubs when they thought they were getting an “all-in-one” platform.

The complexity creeps up on you. HubSpot has added so many features over the years that the interface has gotten cluttered. New team members take weeks to get comfortable. Settings are spread across multiple menus. And the way contacts, companies, deals, and tickets interact can get confusing fast — especially if you’ve got custom properties multiplying without a plan.

Marketing contact billing is confusing. HubSpot switched to “marketing contacts” billing, which means you only pay for contacts you’re actively marketing to. Sounds great in theory. In practice, teams constantly struggle with contacts getting accidentally flagged as marketing contacts, inflating their bills. Cleaning this up monthly becomes a chore.

Onboarding fees are mandatory. At Professional and Enterprise tiers, HubSpot requires paid onboarding — $3,000 for Marketing Hub Professional, $1,500 for Sales Hub Professional. You can’t skip this. For small teams already stretching their budget, this upfront cost on top of monthly fees feels excessive.

Salesforce

Best for: Enterprise teams that need deep customization and complex reporting

Salesforce is the obvious comparison, and there’s a reason it still holds the largest CRM market share globally. If you’ve outgrown HubSpot’s customization limits — hitting walls with custom objects, needing complex approval workflows, or wanting reporting that slices data six different ways — Salesforce gives you that depth. The AppExchange marketplace has thousands of integrations, and virtually any tool you use already connects to Salesforce.

Where Salesforce really separates itself from HubSpot is flexibility. You can build custom objects for any data type your business tracks, create multi-step approval processes, and build reports that pull from any combination of objects and fields. HubSpot has improved its custom object support, but it still feels bolted on compared to Salesforce, where everything was built to be customized from day one. Einstein AI (now powered by Agentforce) provides solid lead scoring, opportunity insights, and predictive forecasting that’s been trained on decades of CRM data.

The honest downside: Salesforce is not simple. Implementation typically takes 2-6 months with help from a consultant or admin. The interface has improved with Lightning Experience, but it’s still more complex than HubSpot. And costs add up quickly — while Starter Suite at $25/user/month looks reasonable, most mid-size companies end up on Enterprise at $165/user/month, plus add-ons for CPQ, marketing automation (Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a separate, expensive product), and additional storage. You’ll also want to budget $100-200/hour for admin support.

For teams under 20 people without a dedicated ops person, Salesforce is probably overkill. For teams of 50+ with complex sales processes, multiple product lines, and serious reporting needs, it’s hard to beat.

See our HubSpot vs Salesforce comparison Read our full Salesforce review

Pipedrive

Best for: Small sales teams who want a visual pipeline without the bloat

Pipedrive was built by salespeople who were frustrated with bloated CRMs, and that origin story still shows. The entire interface is organized around your pipeline — you see your deals laid out visually, drag them between stages, and immediately know what needs attention. I’ve seen sales reps who fought against HubSpot adoption start using Pipedrive voluntarily within a day.

The pricing difference is significant. Pipedrive’s Professional plan at $49/user/month includes features that require HubSpot’s Sales Hub Professional at $90/seat/month — things like automated sequences, custom reporting, and revenue forecasting. For a 10-person sales team, that’s a savings of roughly $400/month. Pipedrive’s AI sales assistant analyzes your pipeline, flags deals that might be going cold, and suggests next steps. It’s not as sophisticated as HubSpot’s Breeze AI, but it’s practical and available at lower tiers.

The limitation is clear: Pipedrive is a sales CRM, period. If you need marketing automation, landing pages, a help desk, or a CMS, you’ll need separate tools. Pipedrive has added basic email marketing through Campaigns, but it’s nowhere near HubSpot’s Marketing Hub. The integration marketplace is decent but much smaller than HubSpot’s. If your whole strategy revolves around inbound marketing flowing into sales, HubSpot’s unified approach still has an edge.

Pipedrive works best for teams of 3-30 salespeople who handle outbound sales, manage deal pipelines, and don’t need built-in marketing tools. If your marketing team uses Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, or a separate platform anyway, Pipedrive gives you a better sales experience for less money.

See our HubSpot vs Pipedrive comparison Read our full Pipedrive review

Zoho CRM

Best for: Budget-conscious teams who want an all-in-one business suite

Zoho CRM is the value play, and it’s not even close. The free plan supports 3 users with basic contact management, lead tracking, and standard reports. The Standard plan at $14/user/month includes scoring rules, workflows, and multiple pipelines. Even Zoho’s Enterprise plan at $40/user/month costs less than HubSpot’s Starter plan per seat while offering advanced features like custom modules, multi-user portals, and Zia AI.

Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant, has matured considerably. It handles lead and deal predictions, detects anomalies in your sales data (like a sudden drop in conversion rates), suggests the best time to contact leads, and can even analyze the tone of customer emails. It’s not flashy, but it’s functional and included at Professional tier and above — no separate AI add-on fee.

The real power move with Zoho is the broader ecosystem. Zoho One ($35/employee/month) gives you access to 45+ applications: CRM, email marketing, project management, invoicing, HR, help desk, analytics, and more. If you’re a small business paying for HubSpot CRM + Mailchimp + Asana + QuickBooks + Zendesk separately, Zoho One could replace most of that stack at a fraction of the total cost.

The trade-offs are real, though. Zoho’s UI lacks the polish of HubSpot. Some modules feel like they were designed a decade ago and never fully updated. The sheer number of settings and configuration options can paralyze new users. Third-party integrations outside the Zoho ecosystem aren’t as smooth — Zapier fills gaps, but native connections to popular tools sometimes lag behind. Customer support quality varies; I’ve had excellent experiences and also waited days for responses on the Standard plan.

See our HubSpot vs Zoho CRM comparison Read our full Zoho CRM review

Freshsales

Best for: Teams that want built-in phone, email, and chat without third-party tools

Freshsales (part of the Freshworks suite) stands out for one practical reason: it includes a built-in phone dialer, email integration, and live chat at prices that make HubSpot look excessive. The Growth plan at $9/user/month includes a phone dialer with local numbers, built-in email tracking, contact scoring, and a visual sales pipeline. HubSpot charges extra for calling minutes and requires Sales Hub Professional ($90/seat/month) for comparable automation.

Freddy AI is Freshsales’ artificial intelligence layer, and it’s surprisingly capable for the price. It scores contacts based on engagement and fit signals, suggests next-best actions for deals, generates email drafts, and provides deal insights that flag risk factors. At the Pro tier ($39/user/month), you get Freddy’s forecasting capabilities and advanced workflow automation — features that sit behind HubSpot’s $90+/seat Professional plans.

The free plan is worth mentioning because it’s genuinely usable. You get contact and account management, a built-in phone dialer (with limited minutes), chat, email, and a Kanban deal view. For a solo founder or tiny team just starting out, it covers the basics without feeling crippled.

Where Freshsales falls short is ecosystem depth. Outside of Freshworks products (Freshdesk, Freshmarketer, Freshservice), integrations can feel limited. The marketplace has grown, but it’s still a fraction of HubSpot’s. Reporting, while improved, doesn’t match HubSpot’s flexibility — especially for custom dashboards and cross-object analytics. If you’re running complex marketing campaigns with landing pages, blog content, and sophisticated attribution, Freshmarketer exists but isn’t as mature as HubSpot’s Marketing Hub.

See our HubSpot vs Freshsales comparison Read our full Freshsales review

Folk CRM

Best for: Agencies, VCs, and relationship-driven teams managing people, not just deals

Folk CRM comes from a completely different philosophy than HubSpot. Instead of organizing everything around a sales pipeline, Folk treats your network as the core unit. You import contacts from LinkedIn, Gmail, or CSV files, organize them into groups (investors, clients, prospects, partners), enrich their profiles automatically, and manage interactions from there. It’s closer to a personal CRM on steroids than a traditional sales platform.

For agencies managing client relationships, VC firms tracking portfolio companies and deal flow, or consultants maintaining a large professional network, Folk’s approach clicks immediately. The LinkedIn integration is particularly slick — a browser extension lets you import profiles with one click, and Folk enriches them with email addresses and company data. Mail merge and email sequences are built in at every paid tier, which means you can run outreach campaigns without needing HubSpot’s Sales Hub or a separate tool like Lemlist.

The interface is clean and fast. It feels like using a modern productivity app rather than a traditional CRM. Contact views are customizable with filters, tags, and custom fields. The learning curve is minimal — most teams are up and running in an afternoon, compared to the weeks HubSpot can take for proper setup.

Folk’s limitations are straightforward. It’s not designed for complex B2B sales processes with multi-stage pipelines, weighted forecasting, and deal-level analytics. Reporting is basic. If you have a 20-person sales team running a structured qualification process (BANT, MEDDIC, etc.), Folk won’t give you the pipeline management tools you need. It also doesn’t offer marketing automation, landing pages, or ticketing — it’s purely relationship management and outreach.

The free plan allows up to 100 contacts, which is enough to test the product. Standard at $18/user/month unlocks unlimited contacts, enrichment credits, and mail merge. It’s a fraction of what HubSpot charges for comparable contact management and outreach features.

See our HubSpot vs Folk CRM comparison Read our full Folk CRM review

Attio

Best for: Startups and modern teams who want a flexible, data-model-first CRM

Attio is the CRM that technical founders and ops-minded teams have been waiting for. Its core differentiator is a completely flexible data model — you can create any object type (deals, projects, candidates, partnerships, whatever your business tracks) and define relationships between them. HubSpot added custom objects a few years ago, but they still feel constrained compared to Attio’s approach, where the entire data architecture bends to your needs.

The automatic data enrichment is genuinely impressive. Connect your email and calendar, and Attio builds a timeline of interactions for every contact and company without manual logging. It pulls in company data, funding information, team size, and tech stack details automatically. Your CRM fills itself in while you work — a stark contrast to HubSpot, where reps need discipline (or automation) to keep records updated.

Attio’s UI deserves a mention because it’s genuinely pleasant. Real-time collaboration works like Google Docs — multiple team members can work on the same record simultaneously. Views are highly customizable with filters, sorts, and grouping that feels more like Airtable or Notion than a traditional CRM. For teams that are already living in modern tools, Attio fits the workflow naturally.

The limitations are mostly about maturity. Attio is younger than HubSpot, and it shows in certain areas. The integration library is growing but still limited compared to HubSpot’s hundreds of native connections. Reporting has improved significantly in 2025-2026 but doesn’t yet match the depth of HubSpot’s custom report builder. Marketing features are minimal — there’s no built-in email marketing, landing pages, or content tools. And because the product evolves quickly, features you wanted last month might appear next month, which can be exciting or frustrating depending on your temperament.

The free plan supports up to 3 users with basic CRM functionality, making it easy to test. Plus at $29/user/month adds advanced features, and the pricing scales more predictably than HubSpot’s tier-based model.

See our HubSpot vs Attio comparison Read our full Attio review

HubSpot CRM Free

Best for: Teams who like HubSpot’s interface but can’t justify paid tier pricing

This might seem like a strange “alternative,” but a huge number of teams are currently paying for HubSpot’s Starter or Professional tiers and could save thousands by downgrading to the free plan. HubSpot’s free CRM includes unlimited users, up to 1 million contacts, deal tracking, task management, meeting scheduling, basic forms, and limited email marketing (2,000 sends per month with HubSpot branding).

If your team primarily needs a shared contact database, deal pipeline, and basic task management, the free plan covers those needs well. The meeting scheduling link alone — which syncs with Google Calendar or Outlook — replaces a Calendly subscription. The live chat widget, while branded, works for basic website inquiries. You still get the mobile app, Gmail/Outlook integration, and access to HubSpot’s Academy training resources.

The limitations are well-documented: HubSpot branding appears on all forms, emails, and chat widgets. You’re limited to 5 email templates, 1 deal pipeline, basic reporting dashboards, and no automation workflows. There’s no sequences (email outreach automation), no custom reporting, and no phone support. The forms collect leads, but you can’t build landing pages or run A/B tests.

For solopreneurs, early-stage startups, and small teams who need a free CRM that doesn’t feel like a toy, HubSpot Free remains one of the strongest options. Just go in with clear eyes about where the walls are, and plan which paid tools you’ll pair it with (Mailchimp for email, Calendly for advanced scheduling, etc.) instead of defaulting to HubSpot’s paid tiers.

Read our full HubSpot Free review

Quick Comparison Table

Tool	Best For	Starting Price	Free Plan
Salesforce	Enterprise teams, complex sales processes	$25/user/month	No (30-day trial)
Pipedrive	Small sales teams, visual pipeline	$14/user/month	No (14-day trial)
Zoho CRM	Budget-conscious teams, all-in-one suite	$14/user/month	Yes (3 users)
Freshsales	Built-in phone/email/chat	$9/user/month	Yes (3 users)
Folk CRM	Agencies, VCs, relationship management	$18/user/month	Yes (100 contacts)
Attio	Startups, flexible data model	$29/user/month	Yes (3 users)
HubSpot Free	Teams who want HubSpot without paying	$0	Yes (unlimited users)

How to Choose

If budget is your main driver, start with Zoho CRM or Freshsales. Both offer functional free plans and paid tiers well under $50/user/month. Zoho wins if you want a broader business suite; Freshsales wins if you need built-in calling and chat.

If you’re a small sales team (under 15 reps), Pipedrive is hard to beat. The pipeline visualization, activity-based selling approach, and straightforward pricing make it the easiest transition from HubSpot’s Sales Hub.

If you’re scaling past 50 people and need serious customization, Salesforce is the move. Yes, it costs more and takes longer to implement. But you won’t outgrow it, and the reporting capabilities are in a different league.

If you manage relationships more than deals — you’re a VC, agency, recruiter, or consultant — Folk CRM’s contact-centric approach will feel more natural than any pipeline-based CRM.

If you’re a startup that wants a modern, flexible CRM and you’re comfortable with a newer product that’s still evolving, Attio gives you the most architectural flexibility without Salesforce’s complexity.

If you just want to stop paying so much for HubSpot, audit which paid features you actually use. Many teams can downgrade to HubSpot Free and supplement with cheaper specialized tools. Don’t pay $800/month for a marketing hub when you’re only using 3 of its features.

Switching Tips

Export your data before you commit. HubSpot makes data export relatively easy — you can export contacts, companies, deals, and tickets as CSV files from the respective list views. Do a full export and review the data before importing into your new CRM. Pay attention to custom properties; they won’t map automatically, and you’ll need to create matching fields in your new system first.

Plan for 2-4 weeks of transition. Don’t try to switch CRMs over a weekend. A realistic migration for a small team (under 20 people) takes 2-3 weeks: one week to set up the new CRM and map your data, one week of parallel running (using both systems), and a final week to fully cut over and handle stragglers. Larger teams should budget 4-8 weeks.

Your email sequences and workflows won’t migrate. This catches people off guard. HubSpot’s automation workflows, email sequences, and lead scoring rules don’t export. You’ll need to rebuild them manually in your new CRM. Screenshot or document everything before you start the migration. I keep a spreadsheet of every active workflow, its trigger, its actions, and its enrollment criteria.

Watch your integrations. List every tool connected to HubSpot — your website forms, ad platforms, email provider, phone system, Slack notifications, etc. Verify that your new CRM supports each integration before switching. A missing integration can break a critical workflow you didn’t think about.

Don’t lose your historical activity data. Contacts and deal records export cleanly. But email histories, call logs, meeting notes, and activity timelines often don’t transfer well between CRMs. If historical context matters to your team, consider keeping read-only access to HubSpot for a few months after migration so reps can reference past conversations.

Inform your team early and train them. The #1 reason CRM migrations fail isn’t technical — it’s adoption. Give your team 2 weeks’ notice, run a training session before the switch, and designate one person as the go-to for questions in the first month. A CRM nobody uses is worse than no CRM at all.

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