HubSpot CRM Review 2025

HubSpot CRM might be the first name that comes to mind when someone mentions customer relationship management (CRM) software. There’s a good reason for that.

The company has built one of the most recognizable brands in business software, and their orange sprocket logo seems to be everywhere these days.

But just because HubSpot dominates the conversation doesn’t mean it’s the right CRM for small businesses. That’s why we set out to look past the marketing and put HubSpot CRM to the test.

The goal is to find out whether it actually serves small businesses well, or whether its reputation exceeds its performance in real life.

Overview of HubSpot CRM for Small Business

HubSpot CRM is an all-in-one platform that combines typical CRM functionality with marketing, sales, customer service, and content management tools. Each of these is organized into “Hubs”, and while they provide distinct functions, they work together inside the platform.

The Sales Hub, which is most relevant for CRM purposes, is the focus of this review.

HubSpot includes standard CRM features like contact management, pipeline tracking, and deal management. But it doesn’t stop there. The CRM also offers marketing automation tools, customer service ticketing systems, content management capabilities, and commerce features.

The platform includes AI-powered tools through their Breeze Copilot system, which can summarize conversations, take meeting notes, and automate various tasks.

And if you need to extend HubSpot CRM’s functionalities, you can head on to the app marketplace to connect with over 1,900 other business apps and productivity tools.

One particularly interesting thing about HubSpot is its data enrichment. The platform automatically pulls in additional information about your contacts and companies from public sources without any effort on your part.

However, this comprehensive feature set creates a number of problems for small businesses.

First off, the sheer volume of features means it takes time to find the features you need. And with more than 10 tabs (each of which houses multiple sections), that process becomes even more strenuous and time-consuming.

Even more frustrating is how essential small business CRM functions are locked behind expensive paywalls. Want to send email sequences to nurture your leads? That requires an upgrade to the $90 per user/month plan. Need to manage duplicates in your database or want more than two sales pipelines? Same story.

HubSpot’s approach to onboarding is another problem. The company charges thousands of dollars to help new customers learn their platform. If the software requires expensive professional training just to use it effectively, is it really simple enough for your small business?

HubSpot CRM does have a free plan, though. So, you can give it a try before making a decision.

HubSpot CRM Pros and Cons

Looking at HubSpot CRM objectively means weighing both the good sides and the bad ones. After all, while the platform comes with a wide range of powerful features, it does have some drawbacks that small businesses just can’t afford to ignore.

Key CRM Features of HubSpot CRM

To understand what HubSpot CRM offers, you have to look past the marketing promises and focus on what you actually get at each plan level.

For this review, we examined the platform at the Sales Hub Starter tier, which is priced at $15 per user each month. This gives us a realistic view of what small businesses are paying for—and just as importantly, what they’re not getting.

Here’s the table showing HubSpot CRM’s features:

• Core Features

  • Mobile app
    ✅ iOS and Android
  • Contact management
    ✅
  • Follow-up tracking
    ❌
  • Pipelines
    ✅ 2
  • Duplicate management
    ⚠️ Higher plans only

• Centralization Tools

  • Centralized workspace

    

    A centralized workspace is an essential small business CRM feature that lets you manage your whole business on just one page.
    ❌
  • Dashboard
    ✅
  • Number of integrations
    1,900+

• Communication Tools

  • Two-way email sync
    ✅
  • Click-to-call options
    ✅
  • Multi-channel inbox

    

    To make communications faster and easier, a multi-channel inbox stores messages you receive from various channels in one place.
    ✅
  • Meeting scheduling
    ✅

• Simple Automation

  • CRM workflows
    ⚠️ Higher plans only
  • Sales email sequences
    ⚠️ Higher plans only
  • Free web forms
    ✅
  • Browser extension for auto lead capture
    ⚠️ Email only

• Customer Support

  • Email support
    ✅
  • Live chat
    ✅
  • Phone support
    ⚠️ Higher plans only

• Pricing

  • Starting price
    $15 per seat/month
  • Free trial
    ✅ 14 days
  • Free plan
    ✅ Up to 2 users
  • Next paid plan
    ⚠️ Expensive ($90 per seat/month)

Below, we’ll examine the features in detail.

Contact Management

HubSpot CRM lets you organize contacts and manage their entire lifecycle—from one place.

You can create new tasks for each contact, send them an email, leave a note, schedule a phone call, set up a meeting, and keep a complete record of all activities. HubSpot also logs all email correspondence and lets you manually record sent SMS, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp messages (as a type of Note).

Breeze, HubSpot’s AI virtual assistant, also provides a contact summary and answers any questions you have about the contact. On top of that, HubSpot CRM automatically enriches contact and company data with more details scraped from public sources.

Lead Management

HubSpot is one of the very few CRMs that have separate modules for managing leads and deals. In this system, leads are created from contacts, which means every lead originates from an existing contact record.

The lead management page lists all of your potential customers and helps you qualify them. Clicking on any lead opens a sidebar with full details, including basic information, notes, emails, activities, and more.

Similar to the deals module, the lead management section also provides performance metrics. But it goes a step further by offering a dedicated dashboard that highlights key insights, such as leads by source and the top reasons leads are disqualified.

Task Management

HubSpot CRM enables you to create tasks and organize them in separate sections, depending on whether they’re overdue, due today, or still far off.

You can assign priorities, create reminders, and set up tasks to repeat every X number of days. You can also connect your Google or Outlook account to view tasks in their calendars.

HubSpot also features a task completion mode of sorts. The CRM can queue your tasks and prompt you to complete them one after the other.

That being said, this software treats tasks as optional, which is why the “Tasks” tab is at the bottom of the main menu. There’s also no default field to add next steps when creating a new contact or a simple way to automatically prioritize them.

A part of the task management functionality in HubSpot CRM is the meeting scheduler. This CRM lets you set up meetings, as well as create an online calendar where prospects can book appointments to meet with you.

Pipeline Management

HubSpot CRM features a robust pipeline management system.

The CRM software lets you create pipelines for deals and configure their stages. It also allows you to manage the lifecycle of your contacts, as well as the stages of your leads. Likewise, you can even create a pipeline for managing customers’ tickets.

Besides simply configuring the pipelines, HubSpot visualizes your deals pipeline in a Kanban board and provides you with sales metrics like total deal amount, average deal age, and open deal value, amongst others. This CRM software can present your ticket pipeline in the same way, but without the sales forecasting features.

However, despite being a very comprehensive solution, HubSpot doesn’t offer a simple way to track post-sales operations. So if you want to track client projects, you’ll need to jump through a few hoops or hire a HubSpot implementation consultancy.

Note: There’s a limit to how many pipelines you can create. On the free plan, you get just 1 pipeline per module, and on the Starter tier, you get 2. If you want more, you’ll need to opt for Professional at $90/month.

Deal Management

HubSpot CRM allows you to create deals and assign them to a team member. All deals are organized in a list where you can update their stages with two clicks of the mouse. Another option is to switch to Kanban and move deals forward using drag and drop.

But if you need more context, you can open the deal’s full page. It contains all the deal’s information, as well as a summary of the deal’s lifecycle by HubSpot’s Breeze AI.

The deal page lets you manage associated contacts, companies, tickets, invoices, and the like. You can also send emails, make calls, create activities, manually log individual messages (SMS, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn) in a note, and keep a record of everything.

Email Sync

From the free plan, HubSpot CRM offers a two-way sync with your email account.

By connecting your email provider, you’ll be able to send and receive emails to and from your contacts or leads. You can also track your email opens and keep a history of all correspondence.

Collaboration

You can bring your sales team to this software and collaborate seamlessly. Add up to 2 users on the free plan, and up to hundreds or thousands if you’re on any of the paid subscriptions.

Once in, you can assign tasks to your team members or put them in charge of contacts, leads, deals, and or tickets. You can also share your dashboards and reports, and manage who can access what in your organization’s CRM account.

HubSpot also includes a shared inbox where you and your team can receive and respond to incoming emails and live chat requests.

Duplicate Management

HubSpot CRM helps you stay on top of duplicates in two ways.

First, it flags potential duplicates when you’re creating a new record, so you don’t accidentally add the same contact twice.

Second, the Data Quality module uses HubSpot’s AI to scan your database for duplicates and merge them automatically.

There is a limitation, though. This feature is only available if you are subscribed to at least the Professional tier of the Sales Hub. If not, you’ll have to manually find duplicates and merge them yourself.

Dashboard and Reporting

HubSpot CRM gives you the flexibility to create dashboards either from scratch or by choosing from a wide library of templates. These dashboards visualize your most important business metrics and give you a clear picture of your overall performance.

You can also build reports in HubSpot. Just pick a template, choose the metrics you want to track, and decide how you want them displayed, whether as a chart, table, or some other kind of visualization.

However, there is a limitation. Reports on HubSpot’s CRM free and Starter plans can only be built using templates. If you want the freedom to create reports completely from scratch, you’ll need to upgrade to the Sales Hub Professional plan, which costs $90 per user each month.

It’s worth noting that on HubSpot, you can easily collaborate on dashboards and reports. You can make them visible to other users in your CRM or share them via email or a URL.

Automations

HubSpot CRM includes a host of automation features. The CRM has an email sequencing functionality and includes custom workflows to help you build automations for your sales processes. However, you’ll need a Professional Sales Hub subscription to use them.

HubSpot is also equipped with email marketing automation tools. This means you can trigger emails for new online form or ad form sign-ups. However, if you need more triggers, you will need to upgrade to Marketing Hub Professional or integrate with an email marketing tool.

Automatic lead capture is available, too. Using HubSpot’s browser extension, you can pull contact details straight from your Gmail or Outlook account and save them directly into the CRM.

The platform also offers free web forms that automatically create new contact records when filled out.

Additionally, HubSpot leans heavily into AI. It includes a note-taker that records the content of your meetings, an AI agent that can respond to customer requests, and even Breeze Studio, a tool for building custom AI agents that handle routine tasks for your business.

The downside is that these AI-powered features are not available on the free or Starter plans. To use them, you’ll need to be on at least a Sales Hub Professional subscription.

Integrations

HubSpot CRM integrates with several popular social media apps. For example, it syncs with Slack, allowing you to create contacts, tasks, and tickets directly from your team’s Slack channels.

It also offers a two-way connection with Facebook Messenger, so you can capture new contacts and chat with your Facebook audience without leaving the CRM.

HubSpot CRM integrates with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, too (starting from the Professional plan). This lets you view LinkedIn data and send InMails from within your CRM’s contact and company pages.

HubSpot also has a built-in WhatsApp integration, but to use it, you’ll need to subscribe to the Professional plan of either the Marketing Hub or the Service Hub. The Marketing Professional subscription starts at $800/month and requires a compulsory $3,000 onboarding fee.

If you need more integrations, HubSpot CRM has a robust marketplace where you can connect with over 1,900 third-party applications.

Mobile App

HubSpot CRM has mobile versions available for iOS and Android devices.

Besides giving you on-the-go access to your CRM system, it comes equipped with a business card scanner for capturing contact details. And if you receive a call from a contact in your CRM database, their name and contact details will appear.

Moreover, HubSpot’s mobile app lets you access your team’s shared inbox and handle communications from there.

Ease of Use

HubSpot CRM dons a clean design with a minimal color scheme, non-distracting text layouts, and a well-organized navigation menu. There’s also a “Bookmarks” tab where you can add your favorite or more frequently used modules for easy access.

However, HubSpot has up to 11 tabs, which can be too much for a small business to comfortably and efficiently work with. Each of these tabs houses other subtabs, and within those, there are more sections that you’ll need to work with.

There are also too many features available on the CRM software. Whether you’re on the freemium or on any of the paid products, you’ll be getting a bunch of tools for marketing, sales, service, content, and commerce—a lot of which you likely won’t need to manage customer relationships. To compound the issue, these extra functionalities are boldly put on display, and you can’t choose to hide them.

Moreover, the 360º page for contacts, leads, and deals houses way too much information. Small businesses don’t need every single one of these to move sales forward, and they sure don’t need the overload that comes with seeing all that data at once, in one place.

All of this makes the software complex and very difficult to learn. In fact, on G2, HubSpot has an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 from 12,390+ customers. Many of them mention that while HubSpot is relatively easy to use, there’s still a learning curve, and the software can feel overwhelming until you get used to it.

HubSpot is well aware of and admits its own complexity. Proof of this is in how the software requires you to pay for an onboarding program that costs thousands of dollars if you’re opting for Sales Hub Professional.

Customer Support

Customer support in HubSpot CRM is tied to the plan you choose.

If you’re on the free plan, you will not get direct support; only access to self-help articles and free courses that explain how to use the software. On the Starter plan, support improves slightly with access to email and in-app chat.

If you want phone support, however, you will need to upgrade to at least the Professional plan.

HubSpot CRM Pricing Structure

HubSpot is an all-in-one platform, and as such, it has different products (called Hubs), each with its own pricing plans. As such, the software’s pricing structure can be quite confusing for many people.

The HubSpot product with the most suitable CRM features is the Sales Hub.

One might argue for the Smart CRM, but it doesn’t have several sales functionalities—like email sequences, calling, automatic enrichment, sales goals, and more—that are important for small and medium-sized businesses. Besides, the Sales Hub comes equipped with the Smart CRM, anyway.

The Sales Hub comes with one freemium plan and three paid tiers: Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. As with most CRMs, the higher you go up the ladder, the more features you unlock.

However, HubSpot’s pricing structure isn’t as straightforward as it appears. There are hidden costs to watch out for, especially when it comes to onboarding. And to access certain features, you’ll need to subscribe to a different product (or Hub!) altogether.

How Much Does HubSpot CRM Cost?

HubSpot CRM has a free plan that accommodates up to 2 users and is equipped with several free tools for marketing, sales, service, and content. However, this freemium has several limitations that might hold your small business back:

• One pipeline
• No duplicate management
• No email sequences
• No workflow automations

As your business grows and you need more functionalities, you’ll have to opt for a paid plan, and that’s when HubSpot CRM becomes expensive.

The lowest plan (Sales Hub Starter) comes at $15 per user/month (if paid annually). While it lets you automate your sales workflow, it still fails to deliver more than 2 pipelines, as well as core features like email sequences and duplicate management.

These are only available on the higher-priced plans that start from $90 per user (for Sales Hub Professional) and peak at $150 per user/month (for the Enterprise tier).

But opting for either of these higher-tier subscriptions means you’ll have to pay their compulsory onboarding fees. That’s $1,500 for the Professional tier, and $3,500 for Enterprise.

There’s a 14-day free trial to try these subscriptions out before fully committing.

Is HubSpot CRM Pricing Affordable for Small Businesses?

When you move past the advertised rates and calculate what you’ll actually pay to get a functioning CRM for your small business, you’ll realize that HubSpot CRM’s pricing is not small-business friendly.

That free plan they promote might work fine if you have just a handful of clients or need CRM just to store contacts. But the moment you need a second pipeline for different products or services or automate basic workflows, you’re forced into paid territory.

The Starter plan at $15 seems like the logical next step, except it still restricts you to just two pipelines and withholds email sequences entirely.

In fact, to access features that should be standard in any CRM—like automated email sequences for lead nurturing, duplicate management to keep your database clean, and enough pipelines to organize different sales processes—you need the Professional plan.

That’s $90 per user per month, or $1,080 annually for a single user. Add four more team members and you’re looking at $5,400 per year just for software licenses.

But wait, there’s more. HubSpot then requires you to pay for onboarding on this higher tier. The Professional onboarding costs $1,500, which means your first-year investment could easily exceed $5,000 to $9,000 for a small team.

When you compare this to the typical small business CRM that charges between $10 and $20 per user per month with all essential features included, it becomes clear that HubSpot CRM is not in any way an affordable CRM.

Final Verdict: Is HubSpot the Best CRM for Small Businesses?

After extensive testing and analysis, the answer depends entirely on what kind of small business you’re running and where you see yourself in a few years.

HubSpot CRM is more suited for large and medium-sized businesses that invest heavily in marketing automation and website analytics.

But for small businesses—the local service companies, the boutique agencies, the family-owned retailers, the independent consultants—HubSpot is more of a pain in the neck.

You’ll spend more time navigating features you don’t need than actually selling. You’ll pay premium prices for basic functionality while advanced features sit unused. Your team will need extensive training to use a system that should be intuitive.

Every aspect of HubSpot, from its pricing structure to its interface design, assumes you require increasingly complex tools. For many small businesses, that assumption is simply wrong.

According to our criteria (Value, Impact, and Speed), HubSpot’s fit for small businesses is Low.

Best Alternative for HubSpot CRM

If you’ve read this far and realized HubSpot isn’t the right fit, you’re probably wondering what CRM would actually work for your small business. The simple answer? OnePageCRM.

Value: High
Impact: High
Speed: High
Pricing starts from: $9.95

With OnePageCRM, you get all the essentials—contact management, pipeline tracking, and even duplicate management from the start.

Unlike HubSpot, which spreads its functionality across 11 different tabs and countless sub-menus, OnePageCRM keeps everything centralized. You can manage your entire business from a single page

One of OnePageCRM’s biggest advantages is follow-up tracking, something HubSpot doesn’t include. Instead of wondering who to call next or which deal needs attention, you have a prioritized list of actions that keeps your sales moving forward.

All of this comes at a price that’s far more accessible for small businesses. At just $9.95 per user each month, OnePageCRM gives you a fully functional CRM without hidden fees or costly onboarding requirements.