Pipedrive vs. HubSpot: The Ultimate Breakdown of Pros and Cons

There’s a good reason customer relationship management (CRM) platforms have become enormously popular for businesses of all sizes. CRMs include a wide range of tools designed to make your life easier. Most notably, they keep all your sales and customer information in a single, centralized place so you can track the progress of your pipelines and the performance of your sales team with just a few clicks.

However, to realize this value, you need to do more than select any old CRM that offers a suite of powerful features. You need to select a best-fit CRM solution — one that meets your company’s specific needs. The truth is that even incredibly popular CRM solutions like Salesforce and HubSpot aren’t always the right choice for every business.

One great Salesforce and HubSpot alternative that many businesses turn to is Pipedrive. While it may not be as popular as the big names just yet, Pipedrive is quickly rising through the ranks of easy-to-use, effective CRM solutions for businesses considering more affordable, simpler HubSpot alternatives. In this piece, we’ll look at Pipedrive versus HubSpot to help you determine which solution is best for your business.

A closer look at Pipedrive

Website: https://www.pipedrive.com/

Founded in 2010, Pipedrive has become one of the strongest HubSpot alternatives. It’s a sales pipeline tool that lets users set up customized pipelines, track progress toward goals, and incorporate automation into their work. Among other things, this minimizes time spent on admin tasks. Pipedrive claims to be the first CRM solution made by salespeople, for salespeople (as opposed to being designed for executives), and many of the tool’s features reflect this pedigree.

Pipedrive is a reliable solution for small and mid-sized businesses that are looking for a high-quality CRM platform that will help them build their business and make sales without breaking the bank.

Pipedrive’s key features include:

• Sales pipeline builder: This is the core feature of Pipedrive. It lets you build your own customized pipeline using a drag-and-drop interface. You can switch tools and features on and off as you need them so you always see your desired pipeline view. It’s easy to use and it helps sales teams stay organized, saving you time and energy.
  
  
• Streamlined mass communications: Pipedrive makes it easy to build a large database of contacts through simple imports from spreadsheets and other tools. It lets you send emails in batches and includes an array of templates. It even offers live notifications that let you know when someone opens an email you sent.
  
  
• Automations: Pipedrive has several automation features designed to help your business succeed. The platform lets you automate sales admin tasks and offers a sales assistant that gives you personalized tips based on your pipeline.

Pipedrive integration capabilities:

Pipedrive includes more than 20 integrations. It offers Slack and Asana integration right from the web app. It also offers integrations with Outlook, Google Apps, Google Maps, MailChimp, Zapier, Trello, Actiondesk, and more. If Pipedrive doesn’t integrate with your favorite software directly, you can use the Pipedrive API to connect to other solutions.

The pros of Pipedrive:

• Easy to use and easy to learn
• User-friendly interface
• Pipelines are easy to navigate
• Great 24/7 support
• Offers email tracking and integration

The cons of Pipedrive:

• It only offers CRM software — it won’t help with other aspects of your business like marketing
• Limited flexibility in terms of tools and features
• Lacks advanced features that might become necessary as your business grows (fortunately, this shortcoming can be addressed with the use of a data integration tool)
• Doesn’t integrate with Oracle, SAP, or Microsoft Dynamics

Pricing:

Pipedrive includes four pricing plans, each of which is charged on a per user, per month basis:

• Essential: $18 per user, per month. This includes basic features that enable you to organize activities and pipelines.
• Advanced: $33 per user, per month. This includes basic features plus workflow automation.
• Professional: $59 per user, per month. This includes most of Pipedrive’s available features, including forecasting.
• Enterprise: $99 per user, per month. This includes custom onboarding and customer support.

A closer look at HubSpot

Website: https://www.hubspot.com

HubSpot is designed to be an all-in-one sales and marketing solution. Like Pipedrive, HubSpot Sales Hub is designed to simplify the sales process. It helps you organize your pipeline through the use of clear dashboards that empower you to manage your entire customer relationship workflow.

As one of the most well-known and popular CRM solutions on the market, HubSpot attracts customers from across the corporate spectrum. That said, it is particularly popular with mid-sized companies, enterprises, and high-growth unicorns.

HubSpot’s key features include:

• Pipeline management: HubSpot prioritizes pipeline management. The solution lets you set up a visual layout of your deals with a single click. You can easily allocate tasks and check progress right from your dashboard. The tool also makes it easy to customize your pipeline structure so it aligns with your specific needs.
  
  
• Email integration: HubSpot offers end-to-end integration with your email applications to help you connect with prospects, leads, and customers. The platform includes a wide variety of email templates to help you with each stage of prospecting and marketing. It also lets you schedule emails so they are sent out at the ideal time.

HubSpot integration capabilities:

In addition to natively integrating with a number of third-party solutions — including email applications like Gmail and Outlook — HubSpot has an extensive app marketplace. The HubSpot App Marketplace features more than 500 out-of-the-box integrations (far more than Pipedrive), including video conferencing tools like Zoom and data integration tools like Actiondesk. If you want to connect a solution that doesn’t have a native integration, you can use the HubSpot API to create your own connection.

The pros of HubSpot:

• Great third-party integration capabilities
• Built-in split testing functionality
• Email templates, tracking, and scheduling
• Highly customizable (even more so with a good data integration tool)
• It can grow with your business

The cons of HubSpot:

• Analytics and reporting are lacking (an issue that can be addressed by a data integration tool)
• Quite expensive
• Every plan except the Starter plan requires a one-year commitment that you can’t back out of for any reason

Pricing:

While HubSpot advertises their prices on a per month basis, you are required to make an annual commitment for every plan except the Starter plan. HubSpot Sales Hub has three pricing plans (the prices below reflect the lower, annual billing cost):

• Starter: $45 per month for the minimum of two users, plus $22.50 per month, per additional user.
• Professional: $450 per month for the minimum of five users, plus $90 per month, per additional user.
• Enterprise: $1,200 per month for the minimum of 10 users, plus $120 per month, per additional user.

When to choose Pipedrive vs. when to choose HubSpot

If all you’re looking for is a solid sales CRM, Pipedrive is likely your better option, as Pipedrive and HubSpot are fairly equal when it comes to pipeline management. Both platforms are intuitive and highly customizable and offer similar analytics and reporting capabilities. The difference is that Pipedrive is significantly cheaper, so if you’re on a budget and you don’t need all the bells and whistles, it’s the tool for you.

However, if you’re looking for a more robust solution that offers something for everyone on your team, Pipedrive might not be the right choice. HubSpot is the best platform if you expect to grow — particularly if you’re looking for marketing tools in addition to sales tools.

Whichever CRM solution you choose, it’s important to note that you might still need a supplementary solution to drive real value. If, for instance, you maintain reports in Google Sheets or Excel that are based on your CRM data or you feel like you don’t have a clear view of key sales metrics, even the most powerful CRM solution might not be enough to deliver results.

Making the most of your CRM

When it comes to picking your CRM solution, it’s all about finding the best-fit solution for your specific needs. Pipedrive and HubSpot are both powerful CRM platforms, and each has advantages that can make it the perfect choice for certain kinds of businesses. But regardless of which CRM tool you choose, the best way to get the most out of your data is by investing in a powerful data integration tool like Actiondesk.

Actiondesk combines the power of an advanced BI tool with the ease and simplicity of a spreadsheet. It makes it easy to import and manipulate data from multiple sources, including Pipedrive and HubSpot.

For Pipedrive, Actiondesk lets you access, import, and analyze your Leads, Contacts, Opportunities, Cases, Accounts, Campaigns, Stages, Persons, Deals, Organizations, and Pipelines — all in an intuitive spreadsheet interface. Similarly, for HubSpot, Actiondesk lets you access, import, and analyze your Contacts, Deals, Owners, Companies, and Marketing Email Data — again, all in an easy-to-use spreadsheet interface.

Actiondesk also enables you to build custom dashboards and reports that update automatically in real time as you change data in its original platform. With Actiondesk, you can transform your data analysis and elevate your insights, all from one seamless, user-friendly interface.

Try Actiondesk for free today!