The 9 best HubSpot alternatives for small businesses

Bottom line: Zoho CRM offers a customizable sales CRM from $14/user/month, billed annually. Teams replacing HubSpot’s marketing and service tools should also evaluate the additional apps and costs involved, including bundles such as CRM Plus.

Why it beats HubSpot:

• Affordable sales CRM. Five users on Standard cost $840 a year with annual billing. This covers Zoho CRM Standard; additional marketing and customer service applications may cost extra.
• Four paid editions. Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate let you choose the features and limits your team needs.
• Room to customize. Compare each edition’s workflow, reporting, and customization limits against the features your team uses in HubSpot.

Where HubSpot still wins:

• Setup feels smoother on HubSpot. Zoho CRM gives you more settings, which means more decisions on day one.
• HubSpot’s content and CMS tools have no direct equivalent inside Zoho CRM (that’s a separate Zoho product).

Bottom line: If your team lives in the deal pipeline and ignores everything else, Pipedrive’s activity-based selling is sharper than HubSpot’s Sales Hub, from $14 per user per month.

Why it beats HubSpot: Of the HubSpot sales alternatives we tested, this is the one reps adopt without training. Activity reminders keep pipelines honest, and you pay for sales features only. No marketing suite rides along on the invoice.

Where HubSpot still wins: There’s no free plan, and anything past sales (marketing, service) means buying add-ons or separate tools.

Bottom line: Bigin is a small CRM on purpose: pipelines, email, calls, automation, and a mobile app from $7 per user per month. In our timed setup, it was the only product live with imported data inside an hour.

Bigin is our product, so read this entry knowing that. We scored it on the same rubric as everyone else, which is why coverage is visibly its weakest bar and why it sits third here rather than higher. We built it for teams that want a simpler HubSpot CRM alternative, not a broader one.

Why it beats HubSpot:

• Price. Our top plan costs $18, about what HubSpot Starter does, and below it sit a real free plan and a $7 tier.
• Speed. Industry pipeline templates, guided import from HubSpot CSVs, and none of the settings a five-person team doesn’t need.
• Phone, WhatsApp, and email channels come built in at every paid tier.

Where HubSpot still wins:

• Breadth. If marketing automation drives your requirements, compare ActiveCampaign, EngageBay, or Zoho’s marketing products and bundles.
• Reporting past pipeline metrics is thinner than HubSpot’s.

Bottom line: Freshsales offers a free CRM for up to three users. Growth starts at $9/user/month, billed annually, with email, phone, and basic workflows. Contact scoring is available on Pro, which starts at $39/user/month, billed annually.

Why it beats HubSpot: Its three-user free plan gives small teams a way to start together. Growth adds communication tools and basic workflows at $9/user/month; teams that need contact scoring should budget for Pro.

Where HubSpot still wins: Ecosystem size and marketplace depth. Freshsales’ marketing product is a separate purchase.

Bottom line: EngageBay copies HubSpot’s structure, with marketing, sales, and support bays in one product, at roughly a tenth of the Professional-tier price. Plans start at $14.99 per user per month with a free tier.

Why it beats HubSpot: It’s the most literal swap on this list. Landing pages, email sequences, live chat, and a CRM sit in one login. Human support answers even on the free tier, and there are no onboarding fees anywhere.

Where HubSpot still wins: UI refinement, template quality, and integration count. EngageBay feels functional rather than refined.

Bottom line: monday CRM is a work platform wearing a CRM outfit. That’s a strength when your sales process refuses to fit standard pipeline stages. Plans start at $12 per seat per month with a 3-seat minimum.

Why it beats HubSpot: Boards, columns, and automations reshape around unusual processes, like projects, bookings, or multi-step approvals, that fight HubSpot’s fixed objects. Its dashboards are the most customizable in this roundup.

Where HubSpot still wins: HubSpot is a purpose-built CRM. monday needs assembly before it behaves like one, and there’s no free plan for CRM use.

Bottom line: Brevo is worth considering if you mainly use HubSpot for email marketing. Its free plan includes one user, up to 100,000 stored contacts, and 300 email sends per day, alongside basic sales tools.

Why it beats HubSpot: Brevo offers plans built around email sending volume. Compare both sending allowances and contact-storage limits before choosing a tier, since paid plans impose limits on both.

Where HubSpot still wins: Brevo’s pipeline and deal management stays basic. A sales-led team will feel the gap within a quarter.

Bottom line: ActiveCampaign suits teams focused on email marketing and automation. Starter supports up to five actions per automation; more advanced requirements may need a higher plan or an add-on.

Why it beats HubSpot: It offers a range of plans for email marketing and automated follow-up. Price the plan that supports your actual workflows, including any CRM or lead-scoring add-ons.

Where HubSpot still wins: ActiveCampaign’s pipeline management and lead scoring require an enhanced CRM add-on. Compare the combined subscription cost, user allowance, and contact limit before switching.

Bottom line: Salesforce Starter packages sales, service, and email basics at $25 per user per month. It costs more than most tools here, but it’s the only one whose upgrade path ends at the market’s most powerful CRM.

Why it beats HubSpot: If you expect to pass 100 employees, migrating once (to Starter, then up within Salesforce) beats migrating twice. Admin talent and integrations are everywhere.

Where HubSpot still wins: Day-one usability and value at small scale. Starter is simpler than full Salesforce, yet still heavier than anything above it on this list, and there’s no free plan.