Pipedrive VS HubSpot CRM

In this article, we’re diving into a detailed comparison of two giants in the CRM and marketing automation space: Pipedrive and HubSpot. Both solutions are leaders in the field, but they cater to slightly different needs, making it essential to understand their key strengths and limitations before choosing the right one for your business.

Pipedrive is a top-notch CRM designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It’s perfect for teams with established sales processes who need a reliable tool for managing prospects, leads, and opportunities. With its straightforward approach to account management and Account-Based Marketing (ABM), Pipedrive is especially effective for sales-driven organizations.

On the other hand, HubSpot offers similar core CRM features but goes beyond by delivering a more comprehensive platform. It’s particularly suited for businesses looking for powerful marketing tools in addition to their CRM. However, this versatility comes at a higher cost compared to Pipedrive, making it essential to weigh the value it brings against your budget and goals.

So, which tool is the better fit for your team? Let’s explore the details in this head-to-head comparison of Pipedrive vs HubSpot.

Pipedrive: Our Analysis in Brief

Pipedrive stands out as one of the top CRMs available today.

It’s a perfect fit for teams seeking a fully sales-focused tool that’s incredibly easy to use. Pipedrive delivers a stellar user experience, an exceptional mobile app, and an intuitive interface. Its well-designed Kanban view lets you manage all your sales processes seamlessly.

Like HubSpot, Pipedrive excels at handling high sales volumes and integrates effectively with various tools. While the Essential plan is basic and comparable to other CRMs, the Advanced plan introduces enhanced email and task management features that significantly boost productivity. At just $27.90 per user per month, it’s an excellent value. The Professional plan, priced at $49.90 per user per month, takes things further by enabling SMEs to achieve dramatic improvements in productivity and sales velocity.

HubSpot: Our Analysis in Brief

HubSpot offers an all-in-one CRM solution packed with features.

We recommend HubSpot in two key scenarios:

• For small teams needing a free, high-quality CRM.
• For fast-growing teams requiring a robust all-in-one tool to support their expansion.

HubSpot handles extensive datasets effortlessly and offers outstanding marketing automation and reporting capabilities. While its sales pipeline overview is excellent, it’s not quite as streamlined as Pipedrive’s. HubSpot’s free plan is generous and great for small teams, but its features are limited. On the paid side, the Starter CRM Suite begins at $20 per month per license ($180 per year), including sales, marketing, customer support, and content tools. The Pro plan, while more expensive, offers significant capabilities, and the Enterprise plan ($150 per month per license) delivers enterprise-grade features at a competitive price, rivaling Salesforce.

HubSpot CRM vs. Pipedrive: What Customers Say

	HubSpot	Pipedrive
G2	4.4 (11,174 reviews)	4.2 (1,756 reviews)
Capterra	4.5 (4,088 reviews)	4.6 (2,946 reviews)
TrustRadius	4.3 (4,752 reviews)	4 (450 reviews)

Pipedrive

• Pipedrive users overwhelmingly praise its ease of use and intuitive interface. The ability to monitor the progress of sales pipelines at a glance and to easily manage deals with prospects is a standout feature. The customizable sales pipeline is another strong point.

• However, some users report challenges integrating Pipedrive with third-party tools without using Zapier.

HubSpot

• HubSpot users are impressed by the platform’s extensive and powerful features. Its all-in-one approach delivers significant value and versatility.

• That said, some users criticize the ergonomics of workflows, limitations in the free version, and the pricing of the Marketing Suite.

Pipedrive vs. HubSpot CRM: Functional Scope

Managing the Sales Pipeline & Sales Tasks

Pipedrive’s interface is one of its strongest features. It’s highly visual and structured around deals moving from opportunity to closure (or loss). You can see all your sales pipelines at once, enabling quick identification of the most successful ones. This functionality is invaluable for fine-tuning your business strategy.

Pipedrive’s drag-and-drop functionality allows you to seamlessly manage opportunities across different stages of your sales funnel. It provides a default sales pipeline but also lets you create and customize your own based on specific business needs.

HubSpot, while offering a solid sales pipeline, falls short in terms of visual appeal. The darker color scheme and less intuitive design make it harder to quickly identify key details. Its contact page is comprehensive but can feel cluttered compared to Pipedrive’s streamlined approach.

In conclusion, Pipedrive provides a superior, more intuitive, and visually appealing sales pipeline compared to HubSpot. If this functionality is a priority for you, Pipedrive is the better choice.

Managing Contacts on Pipedrive & HubSpot

CRM and Contact Management

Pipedrive simplifies contact management with features like the “Contact Timeline,” which helps users prioritize interactions. Its contact sheets are clean, easy to read, and focus on essential details, avoiding unnecessary clutter.

HubSpot’s contact sheets, while less visually streamlined, offer greater depth and flexibility. With up to 135 customizable fields, HubSpot enables advanced automation strategies. Once imported, HubSpot automatically tracks all contact activities. Its scalability is notable, allowing up to 1 million contacts and companies to be managed within the CRM.

Lead Generation

Pipedrive allows you to integrate lead generation forms, appointment booking forms, and a chat widget directly into your website with the Lead Booster extension, available for $32.50/month. This extension also gives you access to a global database of 400 million profiles, making it ideal for businesses focused on prospecting. Additionally, for $41/month, you can track companies that visit your website anonymously to uncover potential leads.

HubSpot, on the other hand, offers free integrations for contact forms, chat widgets, and appointment scheduling on your website. It also provides insights into where your prospects originate (e.g., Google or social media) and their behavior. For a detailed history of a prospect’s interactions with your site, you’ll need to subscribe to a paid plan.

Prospecting and Task Automation

Pipedrive helps users track prospecting activities and automate tasks like scheduling follow-ups, booking meetings, and sending emails—all from within the CRM. The “Sales Inbox” consolidates leads from various channels, streamlining lead tracking. To enable email synchronization and automation workflows, you’ll need the Advanced plan at $27.90/month/user.

HubSpot offers similar task-tracking, scheduling, and email synchronization features in its free version. Its automation capabilities, however, are unmatched and available in the Pro version. HubSpot enables efficient workflow creation, automated prospecting emails, and advanced lead scoring.

Lead Scoring & Automation

Automation is HubSpot’s standout feature. Its robust marketing automation tools and integrated CMS enable the creation of powerful workflows. For instance, when a prospect fills out a form on your website, they can automatically receive a series of follow-up emails and schedule a call with your sales team. You can also run automated social media campaigns to generate leads.

While Pipedrive’s automation capabilities are less advanced, its Campaigns tool ($13.30/company/month) is a user-friendly option for creating and sending customized email campaigns. It’s less feature-rich than HubSpot but meets the needs of most teams. For advanced requirements, Pipedrive integrates easily with external marketing automation tools.

Reporting & Forecasting

Pipedrive offers accessible and user-friendly reporting tools starting with the Essential plan at $14.90/month/user, making it more budget-friendly than HubSpot. The dashboard allows you to click on statistical cards to delve into detailed data, such as the number of opportunities created, won, or lost. It also provides an in-depth analysis of pipeline conversion rates.

HubSpot, by contrast, offers powerful and comprehensive reporting features, especially when using its full suite of tools. These features trace the entire customer journey with specialized dashboards for sales, marketing, and service activities. While this is a significant advantage of an all-in-one CRM, it comes at a much higher cost and is less intuitive compared to Pipedrive.

HubSpot vs. Pipedrive: Integrations & Philosophy

Pipedrive provides a wide range of integrations—150 applications, including many lead generation & newsletter tools. It supports Zapier and Integromat but doesn’t match the sheer volume of integrations offered by HubSpot. However, Pipedrive compensates with its robust and user-friendly open API, enabling effortless organization and connection of information. The platform’s standout feature is its ability to integrate seamlessly with no-code platforms and webhooks.

HubSpot offers a vastly larger marketplace with over 1,500 applications, primarily focused on content and online marketing. It also features its own Operations Hub, which supports bidirectional application connections. This ensures that data generated within HubSpot and external applications remains synchronized across the ecosystem. While not all integrations are built directly by HubSpot, the company actively validates and supports many of them, ensuring quality and functionality. Additionally, HubSpot collaborates with third-party developers to enhance integration capabilities, making the most of its robust CRM platform.

ChatSpot: HubSpot’s GPT-4-Powered Differentiator

HubSpot has introduced ChatSpot, an AI-driven chat application that redefines how users interact with CRM systems. Although still in its early stages, ChatSpot is a highly promising tool offering a growing list of integrations. Instead of relying on traditional clicks, typing, or drag-and-drop actions, users simply describe their needs in natural language, and the software executes the tasks for them.

For a comprehensive look at ChatSpot, HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah provides an engaging demonstration on YouTube. It’s well worth a watch for anyone considering this innovative tool!

Pipedrive vs. HubSpot: Pricing

Solution	HubSpot	Pipedrive
Entry price	Free plan with restricted access to all tools (max. 5 users)	From $14.90/user/month, $27.90/user/month to connect an email account
Rate for 2 users (light usage)	$30/month on the Starter plan	$55/month on the Advanced plan
Rate for 5 users (relatively advanced usage)	$450/month on the Pro plan	$250/month on the Professional plan
Rate for 50 users	$7,500/month on the Enterprise plan	$5,000/month on the Enterprise plan

Pipedrive offers excellent value for sales-focused teams with minimal or no marketing needs. While it doesn’t include a free plan, its pricing is highly competitive. The entry-level plan at $14.90/user/month includes most core features but excludes automation, extensive integrations, advanced analytics, and unlimited contacts. The top-tier plan, at $99/user/month, unlocks all features, advanced integrations, and phone support. Additional features like Lead Booster ($32.50/month) can also be added on a per-company basis.

HubSpot, by contrast, provides a compelling free plan ideal for small teams or solopreneurs seeking basic CRM capabilities. However, the free tier is limited in features, and HubSpot lacks a mid-tier plan for small teams with advanced needs but limited budgets. The Starter plan starts at $30/month for two users, while the Pro plan costs $450/month for up to 5 users.