is hubspot worth it

Is HubSpot Worth It? A Firsthand Review for 2025

Many people recommend HubSpot to unify teams, manage customer relationships, and fuel business growth. But is HubSpot worth it for your company?

HubSpot is an all-in-one solution for growing companies–specifically supporting marketing, sales and customer success. Just because it does a lot doesn’t mean it’s for every organization.

The right software solution needs to fit your unique business needs.

Having used HubSpot for over 10+ years to manage marketing, sales, and customer success teams across B2B SaaS companies, I’m here to break down everything you need to know about HubSpot features, pricing, and whether it’s the right fit for your business.

TL;DR: Quick HubSpot Review

Yes, HubSpot is worth it if you’re looking for an easy-to-use, all-in-one CRM to scale your business. Its free plan is great for small businesses, but advanced features in higher-tier plans can be expensive. 

While it offers strong integrations and scalability, cost and limited customization are common drawbacks. Alternatives like Zoho CRM or ActiveCampaign may be better for tighter budgets or specialized needs. While more expensive solutions like Salesforce are often used by enterprise organizations with complex CRM needs.

For expert guidance on getting the most out of HubSpot and overcoming its limitations, the Revenue Reveal team can help you optimize your CRM strategy for business growth.

What is HubSpot?

hubspot marketing dashboard

HubSpot is an all-in-one, AI-powered platform that helps businesses streamline marketing, sales, and customer service.

It provides a unified view of your customer’s journey, from leads to onboarding, while offering a wide range of features to support growth at every stage.

With over 216,840 paying customers in 135+ countries, HubSpot is trusted by companies of all sizes, from startups to enterprises, including renowned brands like eBay, DoorDash, Reddit, and TripAdvisor.

Comprehensive Overview of HubSpot Key Features

Here are some notable features that provide specific benefits based on my personal experience and customer reviews:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

HubSpot excels in integrating various tools and products into a unified ecosystem, making it ideal for businesses of all sizes. 

Customers frequently praised the platform’s ability to connect data points, streamline processes, and integrate with tools like Gong, Twilio, and Outlook. 

You can also easily scale your business by integrating its industry-specific features:

  • Marketing Hub: The platform assists with campaigning, managing SEO, and creating engaging content to generate leads.
  • Sales Hub: This feature helps you track deals, manage pipelines, and streamline workflows.
  • Service Hub: It simplifies customer support with ticketing and feedback tools.
  • CMS Hub: HubSpot can help you build, manage, and optimize websites without needing technical knowledge.
  • Operations Hub: The platform can sync data across platforms and automate work processes among team members.

Marketing Hub for Campaigns and Lead Generation

hubspot marketing hub website creator

HubSpot’s Marketing Hub helps you create impactful campaigns that generate leads and improve ROI (return on investment). 

Key features include:

  • Email Marketing and Automation: It simplifies creating and automating email campaigns to improve engagement.
  • Landing Pages and Lead Capture: The platform offers custom tools with a drag-and-drop interface to personalize landing pages and capture leads.
  • SEO and Content Tools: HubSpot helps optimize your content for better visibility.
  • Real-Time Analytics: It provides insights into campaign performance, allowing you to make adjustments on the go.

Sales Hub for Customer Journey

HubSpot crm calling feature

The Sales Hub provides an overview of your sales pipeline and cycle phases (from leads to conversion). 

It is user-friendly and can easily capture lead details from the primary source.

Here’s what I like about HubSpot’s Sales Hub feature:

  • Email Tracking and Notifications: You can monitor engagement metrics like email opens and clicks to prioritize leads.
  • Task Management:  You can organize daily activities, but many users find the filtering options limited to their business model.
  • Scheduling and Handoffs: HubSpot streamlines workflow between sales and marketing by automating task assignments and allowing reps to match schedules for meetings. 
  • Integration with Third-Party Tools: The platform can connect with platforms like Zoho and Gong for better productivity.

If you’re looking for a structured approach to streamline your sales, check out our sales process flowchart template to get started.

Service Hub for Customer Support

hubspot service hub for support

HubSpot’s Service Hub assists with customer support by streamlining communication and improving response times. 

The platform can automate ticket creation and management, offer self-service options, and integrate live AI chatbots to resolve customer complaints faster.

The Customer Service feature allows you to:

  • Offer customers self-service options through knowledge-base software capabilities
  • Create, manage, and resolve tickets
  • Use AI chatbots to streamline omnichannel customer support
  • Get a complete overview of your customer data
  • Allow customer ownership by offering a personalized portal.

Content Hub for Content Management and Creation

hubspot content management and creation

HubSpot Content Hub or CMS (content management system) assists you with content creation for podcasts, case studies, blogs, and videos. 

Let’s take a look at its key benefits:

  • Increase organic traffic: HubSpot gives you SEO capabilities with user segmentation to create targeted content for different audiences, improving engagement and conversion rates.
  • Permission-based roles: Features like content approvals, gated posts, and partitioning help you distribute relevant content assets across marketing, sales, or leads teams. 
  • Content progress monitoring: You can track, organize, and manage your content performance with built-in analytics tools.

Operations Hub for Data Handling and Sharing

hubspot data operations hub

Here are some benefits of how the Operations Hub feature can help you manage your business:

  • Synchronize data: The platform offers real-time, bi-directional data syncing across various applications.
  • Automate workflows: It streamlines complex business processes to reduce manual and repetitive tasks.
  • Manage data quality and sharing: You can use management tools to clean and maintain data integrity for credible reporting and decision-making across all teams. 

Commerce Hub for Financial Planning

Financing is probably the hardest part of managing a business. 

HubSpot Commerce Hub provides the complete tools to manage, allocate, and track your money from a single source. 

Here’s what customers like about the Commerce Hub feature:

  • It helps with subscription management: The platform automates recurring payments and handles all pending orders, upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations on your behalf.
  • It tracks revenue growth: HubSpot has all the tools you need to track your monthly/annual recurring revenue, along with predictive analysis about future revenue. 
  • It’s easy to implement: It integrates with CRM software and other third-party apps, like QuickBooks, so you accept and manage billing easily. 

AI-powered Capabilities for Personalized Workflows and Reporting

HubSpot uses artificial intelligence to give you a more personalized experience. Called Breeze AI, these AI-powered tools help you generate leads, accelerate sales, maximize revenue, and report every step of your customer’s journey.

Here’s how it helps you and your team manage tasks by gathering user feedback and demand patterns:

  • Helps sales teams identify high-potential leads through lead scoring and forecasting.
  • Brainstorm content ideas based on sales funnel and target audience.
  • Assists in drafting content for landing pages, reports, images, and emails.
  • Automates routine tasks such as email follow-ups.
  • Provides actionable insights via customer feedback and data.
  • Recommends strategies for upselling and cross-selling.
  • Helps teams achieve customer success.
  • Respond to and transfer customer queries via Chatbot.

HubSpot Customer Reviews

It wouldn’t be an objective overview of HubSpot if we didn’t include real-life customer reviews. We looked at customer experiences from different review websites like Capterra and G2 to see what they had to say.

Here’s how they rate HubSpot’s features:

FeatureRating on G2Rating on Capterra
Marketing Hub4.4/5 (12.2k reviews)4.5/5 (6k reviews)
Sales Hub4.4/5 (12k reviews)4.5/5 (469 reviews)
Service Hub4.4/5 (2.4k reviews)4.4/5 (170 reviews)
Content Hub4.5/5 (1.7k reviews)4.6/5 (78 reviews)
Operations Hub4.5/5 (462 reviews)No rating
Commerce Hub4.6/5 (6 reviews)No rating

HubSpot Pricing

HubSpot offers four pricing plans:

PlanWhat’s Included?Price (monthly basis)
FreeBasic tools with limited features to get started$0
Marketing Hub Starter Marketing automation tools and live chat$15/month per user
Starter Customer Platform Marketing, sales, CMS, and operations software$15/month per user
Marketing Hub ProfessionalMarketing software with reporting, automation, and campaign tools$800/month for 3 seats+ $45/mo for additional seat
Marketing Hub EnterpriseMarketing software with advanced features and control$3600/month for 5 seats+ $75 for additional seat

What Are the Pros and Cons of HubSpot?

Here’s a quick overview of the pros and cons of HubSpot based on online customer reviews on G2:

Pros

  • Easy to navigate, drag-and-drop interface
  • Strong customer support
  • Combines CRM, sales, marketing, and customer service in one platform
  • Connects with over 500 tools
  • Offers a free CRM option
  • Provides mobile-friendly interface 
  • Has flexible features that grow with your business
  • Provides HubSpot Playbook for training and onboarding

Cons

  • Advanced features are available in higher pricing plans
  • May not meet complex requirements for large teams
  • Charges by per-user account
  • Limited customization options 
  • Occasional bugs disrupt workflows
  • There’s a learning curve in advanced features
  • Onboarding can be complex
  • Not all third-party apps can be integrated

4 HubSpot Alternatives (with Comparison Table)

There are numerous CRMs and marketing automation platforms available today. If you want to compare with other platforms, here are four HubSpot alternatives you can evaluate.

Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses so it’s important to choose the right one that matches your business needs.

1. EngageBay

EngageBay is an all-in-one automation platform designed to help businesses market, acquire, engage, and convert website visitors into customers. 

As a HubSpot alternative, the platform has a wide range of features like email marketing, landing pages, live chat/help desk, ticketing, telephony, appointment scheduling, and contact management.

Pros:

  • Affordable Pricing: Ideal for small businesses with limited budgets.
  • All-in-One Platform: Combines CRM, marketing automation, sales tools, and help desk functionalities.
  • Ease of Use: User-friendly interface for teams with limited tech expertise.
  • Email and Social Integration: Strong email marketing features and basic social media tools.
  • Great Support: Responsive customer support for troubleshooting.

Cons:

  • Limited Customization: Less suitable for complex workflows or advanced segmentation.
  • Scalability Issues: May not support growing businesses that require more robust features.
  • Basic Reporting: Analytics and reporting tools are not as sophisticated as competitors.

Best Suited For: EngageBay is affordable for limited budgets and offers more advanced features in its free plan. Small businesses, solopreneurs, and startups looking for an affordable, easy-to-use platform with basic CRM and marketing automation tools.

2. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a powerful marketing automation platform with built-in features like email automation, reporting, sales CRM, pipeline management, and user segmentation. 

While both platforms offer automation tools, ActiveCampaign provides advanced capabilities for complex workflows with detailed triggers and conditions. You can also use advanced features for free on the platform. 

Pros:

  • Powerful Marketing Automation: Industry-leading email automation and personalization capabilities.
  • Affordable for SMBs: Good value for its automation features.
  • CRM Integration: Includes sales and marketing tools, enabling seamless collaboration between teams.
  • Dynamic Content: Excellent for creating personalized customer experiences.
  • Integrations: Connects with a wide array of third-party tools.

Cons:

  • Learning Curve: Requires some training to maximize its potential.
  • Limited Sales Features: Better suited for marketing-heavy use cases than complex sales processes.
  • Pricing for Growth: Costs can increase significantly as your contact list scales.

Best Suited For: Small and medium-sized businesses focused on marketing automation, personalized email campaigns, and nurturing customer relationships.

3. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a cloud-based platform that helps manage customer interactions, track leads, and automate day-to-day workflows. 

Like HubSpot, Zoho CRM offers Zia AI Assistant to automate manual tasks like data entry, sales predictions, and performance monitoring. 

It is more affordable with its basic plan starting from $14 per month. 

4. Salesforce

Salesforce is yet another HubSpot alternative for managing sales, marketing, and customer relations. Salesforce is designed for businesses of all sizes, offering customization options for complex business needs. 

But, its pricing is higher than HubSpot, which offers basic features for free. 

Pros:

  • Extremely Robust: Industry leader with a comprehensive suite of CRM, sales, service, and marketing tools.
  • Customizable: Highly adaptable to complex workflows and enterprise needs.
  • Scalability: Supports businesses of all sizes, from SMBs to global enterprises.
  • Ecosystem: Massive AppExchange marketplace for third-party integrations and add-ons.
  • Advanced Reporting: Provides powerful analytics and AI-driven insights.

Cons:

  • Expensive: High initial cost, plus additional fees for add-ons and support.
  • Complex Implementation: Requires significant onboarding time and potentially a dedicated admin.
  • Overkill for SMBs: May be too robust or costly for smaller organizations with simpler needs.

Best Suited For: Mid-market and enterprise companies with complex sales processes, diverse teams, and budgets to invest in a robust, customizable platform.

Quick Comparison Table

PlatformBest ForKey FeaturesPricing
HubSpotComprehensive all-in-one CRMMarketing Hub: Campaigning, SEO, content tools, real-time analytics. Sales Hub: Email tracking, task management, scheduling. Service Hub: Ticketing, feedback tools. CMS Hub: Website building and optimization. Operations Hub: Workflow automation, data syncing.Free plan; Starter: $15/mo/user; Professional: $800/mo for 3 seats; Enterprise: $3600/mo for 5 seats
EngageBaySmall businesses on a budgetEmail marketing, landing pages, live chat, ticketing, telephony, appointment scheduling, CRMFree plan, Basic plan: Starting from $12.74/mo/user
ActiveCampaignAdvanced marketing automationEmail automation, sales CRM, pipeline management, user segmentation, complex workflow triggersStarting from $15/mo/user
Zoho CRMAffordable CRM for scaling startupsAI-powered task automation, lead tracking, sales predictions, workflow automationStarting from $14/mo/user
SalesforceEnterprises needing customizationHighly customizable CRM, advanced analytics, sales & marketing toolsStarting from $25/mo/user

Is HubSpot Worth It for Your Business?

Before you decide, you need to know whether HubSpot fulfills your basic CRM requirements or not. 

The following is a list of factors to consider:

  • Budget: Make sure your budget aligns with HubSpot’s pricing, consider doing a HubSpot audit before you buy a plan. For smaller businesses or startups, the free plan can be cost-effective.
  • Business Size and Needs: Assess your business’s size and specific needs. If you’re just starting and don’t require advanced automation tools, the free or basic plans are enough to manage daily tasks.
  • Team Expertise: Adding too many features to HubSpot CRM might overcomplicate workflows. If you don’t have a dedicated team for sales, marketing, and customer service, you don’t need to buy higher-tier pricing plans. 
  • Long-Term Scalability: If you’re in the growth stage or product-market fit stage, HubSpot is an excellent platform to scale your business. You need to carefully evaluate your long-term plans before you use HubSpot.

How Revenue Reveal Can Help

Scaling your business with HubSpot can be challenging. If you’re not sure what features to add to your HubSpot, the Revenue Reveal team is here to help. 

Our HubSpot-managed services evaluate each step of your customer journey, set up personalized dashboards, and implement cost-effective, end-to-end solutions tailored to your goals.

Get in touch to get a free HubSpot audit and learn how to maximize HubSpot usage for scalable growth. 

FAQs

Is HubSpot good for small businesses?

Yes, but it depends on your budget and feature needs. HubSpot’s free plan covers basic features such as email marketing, live chat, and reporting. For advanced automation features, you’ll need a higher-tier pricing plan, which can be costly for small businesses.

What makes HubSpot expensive?

HubSpot is expensive due to a wide range of features and a tiered pricing structure. Many customers feel that while the platform is powerful, its pricing may not be justified for their specific needs or budget constraints.

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