Plain-English software guidance
Compare the plans, costs and daily work involved in keeping enquiries and quotes moving. Start with the job you need, not the biggest feature list.
Choose Pipedrive for a paid sales pipeline with clear ownership and next actions. Try HubSpot’s free CRM first if its two-user allowance fits; consider its paid tools when connected marketing, sales or service work justifies the cost. Skip both if your current list keeps every enquiry under control.
Published-information research, not hands-on testing. Provider links are direct and untracked; no commission is earned.
For a clear sales follow-up job: who owns each enquiry, what happens next and when.
View current Pipedrive plansCheck before choosing: Check the selected plan, seats, automation and any add-ons. A new tool does not fix a team that does not update its records.
For teams connecting customer information across marketing, sales and service.
View current HubSpot plansCheck before choosing: Check the exact hubs, seats, contacts and features you need. Do not compare one entry plan with a fully configured platform.
A shared list with customer, owner, next action and follow-up date may be enough. Try that routine before moving data or buying more features. See the practical starting point
A customer relationship management system, usually called a CRM, keeps customer details, conversations and sales tasks together. You do not need one just because a supplier calls it essential.
If one person handles a manageable set of enquiries, try a shared spreadsheet with customer, owner, stage, next action and follow-up date. Add the source and outcome if they help you make decisions. Agree what “contacted”, “quoted”, “won” and “lost” mean. Keep it if work stays visible; compare software when reminders, handovers or duplicate records become a recurring problem. There is no required waiting period.
The free enquiry-recording method offers a starting structure. You can use it in the tools you already have.
On a narrow screen, scroll the table sideways to read each column.
| Your situation | Start with | Reason to skip it |
|---|---|---|
| Quotes need an owner, a next action and a reminder | Pipedrive, with the plan matched to the email and automation features you need | Your existing list and calendar already prevent missed follow-up |
| One or two users need basic contact and deal records without a subscription | HubSpot's free CRM, within its published limits | You need paid features or more access than the free allowance supports |
| Marketing, sales and service need to work from the same customer history | A specifically costed HubSpot setup | You only need a sales checklist and would leave most of the extra tools unused |
| You cannot tell which advertising produced useful calls and forms | A source-recording check, then the WhatConverts guide if the gap remains | You are buying a CRM to answer a measurement question it has not been configured to solve |
Our paid starting point is Pipedrive for a sales-follow-up problem, not a blanket claim that it is cheaper or better for every team. HubSpot's free tier deserves a look before either paid plan.
Pipedrive's current plans are Lite, Growth, Premium and Ultimate. The official feature table lists custom pipelines, contacts, deal records, activities and reporting across these plans. Email sync and automations start at Growth. That makes the lowest headline plan a poor comparison if automatic follow-up is the feature you actually need.
Premium and Ultimate include LeadBooster, Projects and Smart Docs; these cost extra on Lite and Growth. Campaigns and Web Visitors remain separate add-ons. Do not buy the higher tier simply because its bundle is larger: compare it with the lower plan plus only the extras you would use.
Choose Pipedrive when people need a common view of live opportunities and the next task. Skip it if nobody will maintain that view, or if you expect the subscription alone to supply a complete marketing and customer-service operation. Check your required integrations and limits before moving records.
Pipedrive's plan feature table and billing explanation support these distinctions.
HubSpot's free CRM page currently lists up to two users and 1,000 contacts. It includes contact, deal and task tools. This can be enough for a small team with simple needs; free is not shorthand for unlimited access to the paid platform.
Sales Hub is the relevant paid starting point for sales tools. Marketing Hub, Service Hub and other products have their own features and charges. A shared customer record can reduce repeated handovers, but it also requires someone to agree the fields, permissions and routine that each team will use.
For Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise functionality, a user needs the appropriate Sales Seat. A cheaper Core Seat does not unlock every advanced sales feature. View-Only Seats are available without an additional charge for people who only need to look at records.
Choose HubSpot when the free tools fit or when you have a clear use for connected teams. Skip a larger bundle if you cannot name the recurring task each paid feature will replace. Check the exact email, reporting and automation allowance on the edition you intend to buy, not a demonstration of the highest tier.
Official sources checked on 19 September 2026. Pipedrive's public pricing page did not provide a verifiable rate during this review, so there is no quoted Pipedrive price below. Its support pages do establish how billing and plan inclusions work. HubSpot figures below are the published US-dollar catalogue starting rates, not a UK checkout quote, promotion or currency conversion.
On a narrow screen, scroll the table sideways to read each column.
| Cost to compare | Pipedrive | HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Basic access | A paid plan priced per seat. Every purchased seat is charged, even if unassigned. | Free CRM: up to two users and 1,000 contacts, according to the current CRM page. Sales Hub Starter catalogue rate: from US$20 per seat per month. |
| Email and automation | Email sync and automations start at Growth. Compare its limits with the tasks you need to run. | Do not treat Starter as equivalent to Professional. Sales Hub Professional starts at US$100 per seat per month, with required one-time onboarding of US$1,500. |
| Higher tier | Premium and Ultimate include some tools sold as add-ons below those tiers. | Sales Hub Enterprise starts at US$150 per seat per month, billed annually, with required one-time onboarding of US$3,500. |
| Extras | Add-ons and usage top-ups can increase the bill. Campaigns and Web Visitors are extra on all four plans. | Other hubs, additional seats, marketing-contact allowances and credit usage can add cost. These depend on the products and features you choose. |
| Commitment and cash | Annual billing is paid upfront for the year at a discount; monthly billing charges each month. | Check the quote's billing schedule and subscription term separately. A monthly displayed price does not necessarily mean you can cancel monthly. |
Ask both suppliers for the same comparison: the people who need editing access, the exact email and automation tasks, any forms or marketing tools, required onboarding, tax, payment currency and renewal price. Record the first-year total and the later recurring total separately. Discounts can change the starting offer without changing the underlying work you need.
Imagine a small consultancy with three people following up quotes and an owner who only needs to read progress. For Pipedrive, price the required seats, the plan with the needed email features and any selected add-ons. Confirm whether the owner needs a paid seat rather than assuming a free viewer.
For HubSpot, the free two-user allowance would not cover three active sellers. At the catalogue's Sales Hub Starter rate, three paid seats illustrate a US$60 monthly base. If all three genuinely need Professional, the catalogue starting rates illustrate US$3,600 for twelve months of seats plus US$1,500 onboarding, or US$5,100 in the first year, before tax, extras or discounts. An owner using only a View-Only Seat would not add a seat charge. This is arithmetic from the listed rates, not a quote or a recommendation to buy Professional.
The free spreadsheet is still the sensible choice if it keeps every quote owned and followed up. If the difficulty is chasing updates between colleagues, compare the smallest setup that solves that handover before paying for marketing features too.
Write down one real workflow, such as “a quote request arrives, Alex takes ownership, a reply is due tomorrow, and we need to find it again next week”. Use dummy records to check that workflow in a demonstration or trial, including a missed task and a reassigned enquiry.
A trial can expose a poor fit, but a short demonstration cannot prove your whole migration will work. We have not carried out hands-on testing of either product for this comparison.
This comparison uses published provider information reviewed on 19 September 2026. Plan descriptions and the example are editorial research, not a customer testimonial or a claim of professional review. Provider links are direct and untracked; no commission is earned from them. No affiliate-programme acceptance is implied.
See how we compare information and our commercial disclosure. If a price or limit has changed, use the contact page to flag it.
