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Pipedrive and HubSpot CRM are two of the most user-friendly platforms on the market. Though they're both easy to use, these industry leaders diverge when it comes to functionality and cost. HubSpot CRM offers a wealth of free sales and marketing tools, with premium (but costly) upgrades. Pipedrive features a range of affordable plans but is laser-focused on sales features. Comparing the two will help you discover if either is right for your business.
Here are the situations when you want to use either HubSpot CRM or Pipedrive:
If you’re interested in comparing other user-friendly CRMs, check out our articles on the best overall CRMs or the best industry-specific CRMs for more detail. Otherwise, see our at-a-glance information between the two CRM platforms.
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Price Range (Annual) | Free to $1,200+ per month for 10+ users | $14 to $99 per user, per month |
Core Features | A balance of sales and marketing tools | Tools are largely sales-focused |
Ease of Use | Well-organized UI that’s accessible to most | Visual UI that’s simple to learn and navigate |
Customer Service | 24/7 email and chat support for all plans; phone support starts at Professional plan | 24/7 email and chat support for all plans; phone support starts at Power plan |
Reporting | Over 150 templates; custom reports at higher tier | A dozen templates; custom reports at higher tiers |
Workflow Automation | Up to 1,000 sales and marketing workflow rules | Up to 180 sales workflow rules |
Mobile App | Integrates with iMessage, WhatsApp, and Slack | Integrates with WhatsApp, Gmail, and Outlook |
App Integrations | Over 1,000 apps via HubSpot App Marketplace | Over 400 apps via Pipedrive Marketplace |
Visit HubSpot | Visit Pipedrive |
HubSpot CRM and Pipedrive are both renowned for their easy-to-learn user interfaces. Beyond that, each offers something different when it comes to core functionality. Continue reading to learn more about their differences, as well as their performance on core CRM features (reporting, automation, and mobile app), or jump down to see how we scored each CRM.
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Free-for-Life Option | Yes, with unlimited users | No |
Free Trial | No | 14 days |
Starting Price (Annual) | $18 per month for 2 users | $14 per user, per month |
Enterprise Price (Annual) | $1,200 per month for 10 users; then $120 per user, per month | $99 per user, per month |
Add-Ons | From $25 per month | From $6.70 per user, per month |
Monthly Billing | Yes (except Enterprise) | Yes (all plans) |
Visit HubSpot | Visit Pipedrive |
Winner: Pipedrive’s paid plans are more affordable overall (especially at the enterprise level), despite HubSpot's free CRM. All Pipedrive subscriptions include a 14-day free trial.
HubSpot CRM does not offer a free trial for its Sales Hub, but instead has a free-for-life platform that boasts an array of sales and marketing tools. Plus, HubSpot’s free CRM has no seat limits, so it can scale with companies until they’re ready to pay for an upgrade. Speaking of upgrades, it’s easy to level up to one of HubSpot’s premium Sales Hub tiers from within its free CRM – but that can quickly become very expensive, especially for businesses with smaller budgets.
Pipedrive doesn’t have a free-for-life CRM, but it does offer a 14-day trial with every paid plan. Barring HubSpot’s free CRM, Pipedrive is a more economical choice than HubSpot Sales Hub – especially at the enterprise level, as it’s roughly $20 less per user, per month for Pipedrive Enterprise than HubSpot CRM’s equivalent. All Pipedrive subscriptions include access to over 400 app integrations, 24/7 customer support, and the option to pay annually or monthly.
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Contact Management | Contact list segmentation; activity tracking | Unlimited contact labels; smart contact data |
Pipeline Management | Up to 100 pipelines per account | Unlimited visual pipelines |
Lead Management | Email reply tracking; lead conversation routing; meeting scheduling | Color-coded custom labels; integration with chatbots; LeadBooster add-on |
Advanced Features | Recurring revenue tracking; predictive lead scoring | Security dashboard; team management tools |
Visit HubSpot | Visit Pipedrive |
Winner: HubSpot CRM has a more versatile range of features for sales and marketing, eliminating the need for businesses to rely on separate platforms for each.
HubSpot CRM is an ideal solution for companies seeking to boost their sales and marketing efforts with free tools and the ability to upgrade as they scale. Its free forever plan offers website activity tracking, list segmentation, lead generation tools, and task management features. Subscribe to its paid tiers for advanced sales features like predictive lead scoring and recurring revenue tracking, as well as marketing capabilities such as A/B testing and email campaigns.
Pipedrive’s feature set is primarily dedicated to the sales process. HubSpot CRM may have more depth thanks to its shared focus on marketing, but Pipedrive has the edge when it comes to offering unlimited contacts and visual pipelines — both of which are standard with every plan. Other core features include deal and activity reporting plus contact mapping via Google Maps. Higher-tier plans come with advanced security functions and team management tools.
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Setup Time | Minimal | Minimal |
User Interface | Structured and straightforward | Simple and highly visual |
Common Positive Reviews | Free platform is excellent; easy to set up and use | Very user friendly; superb pipeline management |
Common Negative Reviews | Some free tools are limited; upgrades are expensive | Not advanced enough; could be more customizable |
Knowledge Base | ✔ | ✔ |
Community Forums | ✔ | ✔ |
Certification Programs | HubSpot Academy | Pipedrive Academy |
Visit HubSpot | Visit Pipedrive |
Winner: Pipedrive narrowly takes this category, as its visual interface is almost effortless to learn.
HubSpot CRM is often lauded for its ease of use. A straightforward and intuitive interface makes it possible for even the least tech-savvy person to learn HubSpot CRM in little time. It also helps that HubSpot has an extensive knowledge base, an active user community, and free training and certification courses. HubSpot’s free CRM is regarded as a strong platform in its own right — but some functions are limited, and upgrading to premium plans can be pricey.
Pipedrive has a slight advantage over HubSpot CRM since it offers an even cleaner interface and a simplistic approach, which suits businesses that don’t have the bandwidth for extensive CRM training. Sales reps can organize Pipedrive’s visual kanban-style pipelines, interactive dashboards, and shared inboxes through drag-and-drop functionality. You can also access its video tutorials, webinars, and free online courses via Pipedrive Learn and Pipedrive Academy.
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Standard Business Hours | 24/7 | 24/7 |
Support Channels | Live chat, email, phone (Professional and Enterprise plans only) | Phone (Power and Enterprise plans only), email, live chat |
Visit HubSpot | Visit Pipedrive |
Winner: Pipedrive takes this category based on the strength of its user support team, which has glowing reviews on certified sites.
Pipedrive has 24/7 live chat and email support available to all of its users, as well as phone support included in its Power and Enterprise plans. To supplement those support channels, in-depth CRM implementation tutorials, troubleshooting guides, and integration information are included in its knowledge base. Pipedrive’s quality of customer help is viewed favorably overall, although several users lament a lack of timeliness in sufficiently answering queries.
HubSpot CRM offers free 24/7 live chat and email support to all of its paid Sales Hub subscribers. (Anyone with a Professional or Enterprise plan can also avail of phone support.) As if around-the-clock support weren’t enough, HubSpot’s customer service team is regarded as among the best in the industry. HubSpot’s free CRM does not include any live support options, but users can still access HubSpot’s extensive help center and active local community forums.
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Standard Report Types | Sales- and marketing-based (lead sources, ad clicks) | Sales performance-based (deals, emails, activities) |
Custom Reporting | Professional and Enterprise | Professional and Enterprise |
Advanced Reporting | Professional and Enterprise | Professional and Enterprise |
Number of Dashboards | Free: Up to 3 Starter: Up to 10 Professional: Up to 25 Enterprise: Up to 50 | Essential: 1 Advanced: 1 Professional: Unlimited Enterprise: Unlimited |
Reports per Dashboard | Up to 30 reports per dashboard | Up to 25 reports per dashboard |
Visit HubSpot | Visit Pipedrive |
Winner: HubSpot CRM offers more variety in reporting out of the box with over 150 ready-made templates for tracking sales and marketing metrics.
HubSpot CRM includes over 150 report templates as standard with every plan. These range from sales-focused CRM metrics (such as deals created and monthly revenue) to marketing-centric data (like website traffic and interactions by social network). Upgrading to either Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise will unlock access to custom reports and advanced analytics, as well as increase the total number of CRM dashboards users can create.
Pipedrive refers to its reporting as Insights and only comes with roughly a dozen default report types that are largely concentrated on deal performance, activities, and emails. However, unlike HubSpot CRM, Pipedrive’s higher-tier plans come with unlimited visual dashboards that can support up to 25 CRM reports each, as well as the ability to generate custom Insights. You can also apply custom filters to any Insights, so you can share revenue-driving data with your team.
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Workflow Editor Interface | Visual point-and-click | Visual drag-and-drop |
Workflow Types | Contact management, lead routing, task creation | Deal stage, email sends, teamwide notifications |
Workflow Rule Limits | Up to 1,000 rules with all paid Sales Hub plans; no automation with free CRM | Up to 180 rules with Enterprise plan; no automation with Essential |
Workflow Templates | ✔ | ✔ |
Custom Workflows | ✔ | ✔ |
Visit HubSpot | Visit Pipedrive |
Winner: HubSpot CRM has more to offer when it comes to workflow automation — namely the amount of rules allowed and the types of tasks available in its paid plans.
HubSpot CRM includes automation with every paid Sales Hub plan. Users can set up as many as 1,000 workflow rules for sales activities such as deal creation, lead routing, and marketing processes like email campaigns and tracking marketing events. Workflows can be created in HubSpot CRM from scratch using its visual point-and-click interface; however, there are workflow templates available to make automating sales and marketing processes even easier.
Pipedrive, on the other hand, has a visual drag-and-drop feature that allows you to move deals, with the option to start workflows from a template or from scratch. Its interface is arguably more intuitive in its approach, and users can easily automate mundane tasks like adding lead data and pinging reps on Slack when a deal progresses. However, it doesn’t offer as many rules as HubSpot CRM, and you need add-ons like Campaigns for marketing automations.
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Mobile App Cost | Free | Free |
Mobile App Platforms | iOS and Android | iOS and Android |
Mobile Sync With CRM | ✔ | ✔ |
Offline Mode | Contacts, notes, deals | Contacts, sales data |
Other Apps It Syncs With | WhatsApp, iMessage, Slack, LinkedIn, Facebook | Google Maps, Gmail, WhatsApp, Outlook |
Average User Rating | 4.7/5 stars (Apple App Store) 4.2/5 stars (Google Play) | 3.8/5 stars (Apple App Store) 3.9/5 stars (Google Play) |
Visit HubSpot | Visit Pipedrive |
Winner: HubSpot CRM’s mobile app is victorious thanks to its integration with several popular third-party apps plus recent updates that allow for broader offline data access.
HubSpot CRM’s mobile app is an extension of its desktop platform but with several extras baked in. HubSpot CRM mobile app features include a business card scanner, caller ID, and access to customer records from anywhere (online or offline). However, the most noteworthy function here is the HubSpot Keyboard, which syncs with a variety of third-party messaging and productivity apps to insert key contact and sales snippets straight from the CRM.
Pipedrive’s mobile app follows the lead of its full-fledged CRM counterpart with a streamlined visual interface that’s easy to navigate. One notable app-exclusive feature is Focus, which provides a general overview of daily schedules and important tasks. The Pipedrive mobile app also integrates with third-party messaging and productivity apps for a more cohesive mobile experience — and it even syncs mobile data to the desktop CRM, both offline and online.
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App Marketplace | HubSpot App Marketplace | Pipedrive Marketplace |
Number of Total Apps | Over 1,000 | Over 400 |
Number of Free Apps | 45 | Over 100 |
Notable App Integrations | Zoom, Mailchimp, Calendly, Stripe, Google Ads | Trello, Asana, Leadfeeder, Microsoft Teams |
Visit HubSpot | Visit Pipedrive |
Winner: HubSpot CRM offers double the app integrations in its HubSpot App Marketplace, and nearly half of them are available at no cost.
HubSpot CRM is linked to the HubSpot App Marketplace, which is home to over 1,000 app integrations and counting. Categories span sales, marketing, productivity, finance, and customer service. Nearly 50 apps featured on the App Marketplace are available at no cost, including integrations like Zoom, Mailchimp, Slack, and WordPress. The HubSpot App Marketplace is accessible across all HubSpot CRM tiers, including HubSpot’s free CRM.
Pipedrive users can scour the Pipedrive Marketplace for third-party integrations. It currently hosts over 400 apps, ranging in categories from email marketing and analytics to lead generation and messaging. About one-fourth of those apps are free to download; those include Trello, Asana, Leadfeeder, and Microsoft Teams, among others. There’s even an integration for HubSpot for users who want to imbue Pipedrive with additional marketing automation features.
HubSpot CRM and Pipedrive are two excellent sales tools, but neither is a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s just as important to consider why businesses may want to look at options other than these two platforms, which we’ll cover more in-depth in the following section. Below are a few scenarios in which HubSpot CRM and Pipedrive might not be the ideal choice for a sales team or organization.
HubSpot CRM may not be the right fit for the following situations:
Of course, you shouldn’t immediately gravitate toward Pipedrive if you identify with one of the points above. For a complete rundown of what businesses should and shouldn't use HubSpot, check out our independent HubSpot CRM review. Otherwise, keep reading to see who shouldn’t use Pipedrive.
Pipedrive may not be well-suited for the following businesses:
Before deciding that Pipedrive isn't right for you, check out our full Pipedrive review. There, you'll find an editorially-independent analysis as well as a roundup of user reviews. If neither Pipedrive or HubSpot sound right for you, however, check out the alternatives below:
HubSpot CRM and Pipedrive are both very capable CRMs, but they may not be what you or your company need to succeed in your overall sales strategy. If your aim is to implement an easy-to-use CRM but you need something more affordable or customizable, here are three options we believe to be the best alternatives to HubSpot CRM and Pipedrive:
Freshsales is a winning CRM for salespeople and teams, offering more sales features than both Pipedrive and HubSpot for a reasonable price. Its free plan, available for up to three users, provides contact management, sales sequences, and a built-in telephone. Take advantage of its user-friendly interface, as well as multiple pipelines, deal insights, and customizations in its higher tiers. However, if you also need advanced marketing tools, try Zoho CRM.
You can also head over to our lists for the best HubSpot CRM alternatives and the best Pipedrive alternatives to learn more about how their competitors fare when it comes to pricing, functionality, and usability.
In comparing the two platforms, we started by determining six main categories essential for sales teams and small-to-medium-sized businesses considering Pipedrive and HubSpot CRM. From there, we identified weighted subcriteria per category and assigned an overall score out of five to assess the winner for each criteria.
We prioritized scoring Pipedrive and HubSpot CRM based on their pricing and core features since we deem these factors the most important for businesses needing reasonably priced sales-centric software. Next, we looked at the CRM platforms' ease of use and customization capabilities, followed by their customer support solutions and third-party app integrations.
This includes each CRM’s pricing for basic and enterprise-level plans, free versions (if available), trial length, add-ons, and choice between yearly or monthly payment plans.
We went through the features list of both CRMs to see which essential CRM features they include, from core to advanced.
We sourced real user feedback regarding each CRM software’s usability and learning curve and examined their knowledge bases and training offered.
This entails how flexible each CRM is in terms of customizing pipelines, deal stages or milestones, reports, dashboards, and more.
We factored in the quality of support channels HubSpot CRM and Pipedrive offer, as well as their overall quality of service ratings on certified review sites.
Here, we looked into how easily each option syncs with third-party applications commonly used by solopreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses.
HubSpot CRM is the better choice for features, customization, and working on the go. However, if you’re keen to pay for premium functions, Pipedrive is the more affordable option. Of course, both of these CRMs are quite user-friendly — HubSpot CRM succeeds in being structured and straightforward, while Pipedrive stands out for its simple visual-heavy UI. Carefully consider your needs or learn more about how CRM software works to find the right one for you.
This article was written by Alison Barretta and updated by Kezia Jungco.
Alison is a Philadelphia-based technology writer for Selling Signals. She has 15 years of experience in the digital space, and her specialties include comparison guides and reviews across CRM, ecommerce, and various SaaS products. In her free time, Alison has received two HubSpot certifications plus a TEFL certification, as well as leads an online martial arts learning program.
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